The Petrova Machinations
by fandomfatale
Summary: Katherine's new plan to break the curse and kill Klaus drives Elena closer to Damon and Stefan closer to Caroline. What other Petrovas and werewolves does she need, and who will have to die before she succeeds? Ensemble cast, also some D/K, S/K, and C/Ty
1. Chapter 1  Wednesday

Summary

This story is set just after the episode "Katerina".

Katherine may be trapped in the tomb, but she's not as helpless as she seems. Her new plan is to kill Klaus, but how will she do it? Who will have to die in order for her to succeed? What other Petrovas and werewolves are roaming around? Why can't she seem to stop messing with Damon and Stefan's heads and hearts? And why do they keeping letting her do it?

The escalating crisis (and the competition of Rose and Tyler) is driving Damon and Elena and Stefan and Caroline closer together - how far will Stefan and Damon have to go in order to save the people they love as the looming threat of Klaus necessitates desperate measures?

Author's Notes

Just a bit of plot-driven fun to tide me over until the next episode. I hope you'll enjoy reading it as much as I loved writing it. I know it's gotten a bit long (depending on what you're used to), but it moves rather quickly, I assure you, and I also promise that I'll finish it sooner rather than later. There's a bit of a slow build on the relationships, but they'll get more intense in the later chapters. (Just to be clear, this is Damon/Elena and Stefan/Caroline story, without doing any disservice to the hotness of Damon/Katherine, Stefan/Katherine, and Caroline/Tyler.) Also, I'm not spoiled in the least (I haven't even seen the episode 10 promo), so don't worry about that. Oh, and please please _please _comment! I love to hear what you think, and I'm totally open to suggestions. Thanks!

Disclaimer

The Vampire Diaries and its places, characters, etc. do not belong to me and I do not profit from their usage here (or anywhere else, for that matter).

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CHAPTER 1 - Wednesday

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Elena had already decided that school was the biggest waste of time available to her, but Jenna was adamant: she had missed two days already, she was not going to miss a third. Elena wanted to come clean with her aunt, but she didn't have the heart or the energy. Instead she decided to just make her happy, and go. Why not take one day to remember what normal was, before it all became a distant dream?

And, unfortunately, at this point she didn't have any better ideas.

Jeremy was not oblivious to her lethargy as they drove to Mystic Falls High, but he accepted her sugar coated version of the truth: a very old, very powerful vampire had an interest her, and there might be danger coming.

Like that was news (!)

Stefan spent the day trying to comfort her (even he had succumbed to the allure of a normal day at school, or maybe he was just there for her) – she only heard about half of what he said. Her mind raced with ideas: run, hide, turn, fight…they were fantasies. They were all fantasies.

After school they went to the Grill and Elena pushed food around on her plate. Conversation faltered.

In fact, they hadn't talked about anything except for Damon and danger in a long time. And they'd finally run out of things to say on those subjects.

The bartender asked her where Matt was; he hadn't shown up for his shift.

She shrugged. She and Matt weren't friends like they used to be. She shut him out to keep him safe, but he kept getting drawn back in again. His name brought memories of innocence to her; the time before her parents died. Carefree memories of a girl who didn't dream of death and her nice, living boyfriend. It all seemed sinister now – her ignorance. This storm was always coming. It was always brewing, just somewhere else, while she gathered loved ones. Katherine, Elijah, the Originals, Klaus, the curse of the sun and moon – it was all preordained for her. It was her inheritance. It traced itself back through her blood to a girl, a girl who looked like her, a girl who was a sacrifice, like her.

"We need help," she said to Stefan. "But how can we ask it of anyone?" Why should anyone have to risk their life for her?

Stefan would die for her, she knew it. But that didn't mean he could save her. It didn't mean that he could save Tyler, or Bonnie, or Caroline, or Jeremy, or Jenna or Matt.

Would Damon die for her? He had risked his life for her already, more than once. But would he go as far as Stefan was willing to go?

He would. She knew it.

"Where's Damon?" Elena asked, suddenly, coming out of her despairing stupor, setting her fork down onto her plate with a clang. She tried to be proactive, but it all felt so futile.

She was just a girl…

Stefan shook his head; he didn't know.

"He's doing what we should be doing," she declared.

"What's that?"

"Something."

Stefan bristled at the implication that Damon was doing more right by her than he was. Behind his furrowed brow he turned thoughts over and over: one werewolf, one moonstone, one psychotic bitch, one fledgling witch, and…zero ideas.

Caroline approached their table slowly, not wanting to interrupt anything. No one, not even them, knew if they were back together again or not. Stefan caught her eye and gestured for her to join them, but then he broke eye contact and did not look at her again. His brusque manner told her that he was still angry with her for not telling him where Elena was the day before. She had wanted to tell him so badly. But she couldn't break the girl code. Earlier at school she had begged Elena to talk to him on her behalf. Caroline could barely stand the thought of Stefan being disappointed in her; what she had confessed about Tyler was hard enough for her to carry around.

At school Stefan and Elena had filled Caroline in on what Katherine had said, as well as Damon's findings. Caroline had been mulling it over, and had come back to her initial conclusion: "It doesn't sound like Katherine told you anything useful. You know, nothing we can use to make a plan. I can't believe I'm suggesting this, but maybe we should go back and talk to her some more."

"No!" Stefan objected quickly. "And I'm not convinced we should listen to what she's said already. She's a liar."

Elena inclined her head as she thought out the words for what she was about to say. Stefan and Caroline waited expectantly.

"I don't think she lied yesterday," Elena finally revealed. "I think that everything she said was true. But I'm certain she knows more than what she told me. She's-" Elena paused, unable or unwilling to continue.

Stefan and Caroline leaned forward, urging her to finish.

She sighed: "She's not evil. She's manipulative, and ruthless, and self-centered, and a survivor, but she's not…evil. She cared about her family. She cared about her baby. Her _baby_, Stefan. I truly believe that. She's done what she thought she had to, every step of the way."

"She may be a lying liar who lies, but she's a _knowledgeable_ lying liar who lies," Caroline proceeded. "She'll tell us more if we offer her blood. She'll do it for the blood. Any vampire would."

Caroline exchanged a look of vampiric understanding with Stefan. Only a vampire could truly understand the thirst.

Stefan seemed to be considering it, but ended up maintaining his original position. He pointed his finger at Elena in warning: "Don't think for one minute that she cares about you, or anyone. I know you feel connected to her – because of what you're going through, and because you look alike – but Katherine is not going to help us. She is still the enemy."

"But if what Damon says is true, then we're going to need the moonstone," Caroline persisted.

Elena looked to Stefan for his response.

He shook his head. "Even if we disable the breaking of the curse, Klaus will still come after us. If you believe what Katherine said, then you believe that."

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Alexandra moved aside the stone door without much effort. Silence returned, except for the raspy breathing of the unconscious man at her feet and the release of the propane fueling her lantern. Brushing back her draping, curly, mahogany locks, she peered into the darkness, waiting impatiently for movement.

"Katherine!" she called out, growing alarmed after several moments of nothing. Already fearing she would find no one, the delay in response had her nearly shaking.

A sort of scraping came first, slow and deliberate – it reverberated around the rock enclosure.

"Back so soon?" Katherine croaked, her blanched skin shimmering while the rest of her remained obscure. "Did you miss me?" she laughed as she dragged herself a few feet further into the light, clinging to the wall.

Alexandra gasped at the sight. "_Mama_!" she cried, dashing forward.

"No!" Katherine cried, just in time. Alexandra's foot was only inches from the boundary line when she stopped herself, remembering.

Fury raced across Alexandra's face.

"I am all right, Alexandra," Katherine comforted in antiquated Bulgarian.

"You're about to be better: I brought you something," Alexandra responded in the same tongue. She dragged Matt Donovan to the entrance and then rolled him towards Katherine.

Veins appeared around Katherine's eyes as she sank her teeth into his neck and proceeded to drink him dry on her knees. She took her time.

"Why didn't you come sooner?" Katherine demanded in English a few minutes later, pausing only long enough to speak the words before consuming more blood.

Her coloring was beginning to return, her movement became fluid.

"I did as we agreed: I hadn't heard from you in two days, so I came," Alexandra explained patiently. "I wasn't exactly close by. And I had to reconnoiter." She looked around. "This was a best case scenario."

"Two days? Is that all?" Katherine looked back into her prison with contempt. "It felt like longer." She shuddered.

"Why are you so weak, _Mama_? When we spoke on Sunday you were fine. It's only Wednesday."

Hate spiked Katherine's eyes. "Lucy betrayed me – she poisoned the moonstone before handing it over. She left me to the mercy of the Salvatores. I'm afraid I haven't quite had the chance to recover." Katherine released her grip, and Matt's lifeless body fell to the dirt floor. "But I'm feeling better."

Alexandra smirked: "Well you were right: they locked you up under the ruins of the old church. I can certainly understand why Damon would think it fitting."

"I'm embarrassed they even managed that. Fucking witches." A pleased glint passed through Katherine's eyes: "They couldn't kill me," she murmured to herself. "My boys." She turned her focus back to Alexandra: "Have you found a way to break the spell?"

Alexandra sighed. "I'm still working on it."

Katherine glanced down at Matt. "I'll miss looking at him." Even black and blue from the beating he had sustained from Tyler, even dead, Matt was heartwarmingly handsome.

"Caroline Forbes betrayed you; he had to die. Petrovas don't make hollow threats. Besides, I passed him on my way into town and I just couldn't resist." Alexandra closed her eyes, remembering his robust blood running down her throat, even with the hint of vervain (to which she, like her mother, had fostered immunity). He had consumed some recently; Caroline had probably dosed him after the masquerade. "I'll bring you someone clean tomorrow."

"People will notice he's gone."

"I don't care. I hate them. Look what they've done to you," Alexandra's voice cracked. She paced angrily around the space open to her. "I'll get you out of here, _Mama_. I promise."

Katherine smiled patiently. "I'm not worried about that right now. Did you tell Isobel?"

Alexandra rolled her eyes: 500 years together and Katherine was just like every other mother, assuming her child was incompetent. "Isobel knows where you are. If anything happens to me, she'll help you."

"She can be trusted – to a point."

"She'll choose Elena over us."

Katherine smiled softly. "I forgive her that."

"Who has been to see you?"

Katherine laughed. "Elena came. Yesterday…I think. She gave me a little blood – obviously it didn't do much good – in exchange for some answers. I wanted to refuse but I was in no state to do that. I thought you were her, at first. You look so much like her." She laughed. "Like us."

"How much did you tell her?"

"I scared her shitless. That's about it." Katherine outlined what she had revealed.

"Speaking of being scared shitless…"

"I know you didn't want me to come back here, Alexandra. But I had to." Katherine pulled the moonstone out of the shelf-bra of her masquerade dress and held it up. "And we could be worse off."

For the first time Alexandra smiled.

"So, you didn't come straight here…" Katherine posed.

"Not quite. After all, for all I knew you were dead."

"What have you learned? Something's gone down, something drove Elena here with questions about Klaus. I know Tyler turned, though I see it was poor Sarah and not poor Matt who got the job done."

"Rose and Trevor kidnapped Elena the night of the masquerade. They contacted Elijah to make a trade, he came, and he killed Trevor. Damon and Stefan killed Elijah, and rescued the damsel. Rose is now in bed with them. Figuratively and literally."

Katherine lifted her eyes sharply. "Rose and Damon?" She did not seem overly gladdened.

Alexandra, also slightly nettled by the liaison, nodded.

"And Elijah is dead?"

"So they say. But it's hard to imagine them capable of it."

"Don't underestimate Stefan and Damon," Katherine warned. "Just look at what they've done to me."

"It's a good thing you still had all of your emotional weapons intact or you might be worm food right now."

Katherine spared her daughter a wry look before handing her another pearl of wisdom: "That's exactly why the power of a good spurning should not be underestimated either."

"Elijah may be dead, but someone out there knows something. Damon and Rose were anonymously attacked yesterday on a little fact finding mission in Richmond, and I don't think it was a coincidence. That's all I know. I think they'll be coming for the moonstone sooner rather than later. They seem to have some odd ideas about it."

"Elijah would have told someone what he was doing. And now that the Originals know about Elena, I'm not sure I'll be able to make a deal for immunity. It won't be hard for them to learn that Tyler Lockwood is a werewolf. The moonstone is the only bargaining chip I've got left. I'm safe here, for now. But not as safe as I let Stefan believe. No spell is unbreakable, not even one made by the powerful Emily Bennett using the power of a comet."

"Bargaining was never going to work, _Mama_. I've always been of that opinion. Elijah killed Trevor for his betrayal after 500 years even though he was able to hand over a doppelganger. Klaus will never forgive you. He's been chasing you all this time. I don't know if he's in love with you, or if he wants to kill you, or both, but it's not going to end well. I'm going to get you out of here, and then we'll do what we have to do."

Katherine bit her lip thoughtfully. "The full moon is in two weeks. Are you going to be able to do this on your own?"

"I'll get you out. We'll do it together."

"But if I'm still in here, then it's up to you."

Alexandra set her jaw firmly. "I'll get it done."

"I've got an idea for how you could get in with the Salvatores. If you kill Rose-"

"She's stronger than me. Anyway, it won't work." She sighed the sigh of a little girl about to be scolded. "Damon Salvatore will recognize me."

Katherine narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean? You said he never saw you."

Alexandra shook her head, shame now overshadowing her proud determination. "I kept tabs on him for you for almost a century and a half, and he never noticed. But then 15 years ago he'd just moved to Miami and I was watching him at this bar, and…He and Stefan had just gone their separate ways. He was so…utterly pathetic but in such a sexy way. It was irresistible. He was lonely, and so was I, and…"

"You _fucked_ Damon?"

She shrugged, as if the gesture would lessen the importance of her transgression. "It was a small bar. He saw me. One thing followed another." Alexandra avoided her mother's eyes.

Katherine was furious, but she laughed. "He can't resist us Petrovas, can he? Me, you, Isobel, Elena…My blood, my kind."

"_Her_ blood," Alexandra corrected, growing annoyed with her mother's megalomania.

Katherine glared. "You know better than to mention her."

Alexandra shrugged again. "We'll always live in her shadow. Just like Elena lives in yours. At least until this curse business is over."

The elder laughed, her impure joy filling up the cavernous space. "Poor Elena. Damon and Stefan, so in love with me that after 145 years all they've managed to do is fall in love with my double. Or think they have."

"Elena isn't you."

Thinking back to her family bible, to the light, and the blanket that Elena had brought to her, she agreed. "But they still haven't figured that out. They're too busy convincing themselves that she's not me. Besides, we look exactly alike. How could that not matter?"

Alexandra admired her mother's beauty. Even emaciated she'd had a charm to her. But she was back to devastating after the sustenance Matt had provided. No wonder the witches had created a lineage of doppelgangers – you just don't waste a face like that.

"I think I had better go," she finally said. "They'll be coming for the moonstone, I'm sure. They're lying if they offer you your freedom – they can't give it to you. Their little Bennett witch is one spell away from a coma. Regardless, I think she'll find the task beyond her competence let alone her strength."

Katherine sighed as she ran her eyes over Matt's corpse.

"Do you want the company?" Alexandra teased, covering for the pain and guilt she felt at the quasi-abandonment coming.

Katherine raised her eyebrows and then shoved Matt back over the threshold. "Let them find the body. They deserve to know he's dead."

Alexandra nodded.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" Katherine checked, covering her need for reassurance with a business-like tone.

"Yes. I know just what to bring. And I'll go and collect your things from Mrs. Flowers' B and B." She tossed a backpack into the tomb. "But in the meantime: some more blood, and a little reading material – I think you'll find it interesting."

Alexandra's eyes stung with tears as she moved the stone door back into place, and heard her now-recovered mother skipping back to the living space she had created.

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Damon opened the door to Bonnie. He knew she was troubled the second he saw her face, but she plowed into the boardinghouse and to the center of the room before she said anything.

"I haven't done anything recently, so I can only assume that something else is wrong," he noted, following her.

Stefan, Elena, Jeremy, Rose, and Caroline were seated around the fire – they all looked to Bonnie expectantly.

The witch inhaled deeply. "The grimoire is missing."

"What?" Stefan and Damon demanded simultaneously.

Bonnie shook her head, beside herself. "Stolen, I can only assume. The bathroom window was broken."

"You just left it lying around!" Damon hissed, speeding at her and slamming her against the wall, his forearm against her chest.

Stefan and Elena jumped to their feet and called out his name.

Bonnie knew she was too weak to use her aneurysm-spell without revealing her debilitated state; fortunately Damon had already released her. She took a firm step forward. "I keep it in a special place. But I've been using it recently – helping _you_." Also, with the appearance of the Martins in town reigniting her interest, she had been reading it the night before. They didn't need to know that. "Why did you ask me here?" she questioned, changing the subject.

"Rosebud's little friend – the nerdiest vampire I've ever met – he reminded me of you, Stefan – tells us that a witch can disable the curse using the moonstone."

Elena furrowed her eyebrows at the nickname, darting a look Rose's way.

Bonnie shook her head. "So I've heard, but like I told Stefan this morning, I don't know how. Anyway, we don't have the moonstone, it's with Katherine."

"Let me worry about that," Damon announced.

"You should. It's your fault it's down here," Stefan replied.

Damon turned to his brother angrily, obviously rehashing an earlier argument. "It was _poetic_! Besides, I was afraid she would wake up if we took it from her. I figured it couldn't cause any trouble, hidden away down there. Maybe we should just leave it down there like I'd intended. No one will be breaking any curses while it's safely nestled away in the tomb."

"Klaus will find a way in there," Rose assured them. "He won't be stopped."

"Everyone who knows it's down there is in this room."

"He'll figure it out!" Sometimes she felt like they just didn't quite get it. "Someone knows something – don't forget that we were attacked yesterday! Someone followed us to that café and either overheard our conversation, or stopped us before something else could be said. And someone stole this 'grimoire'."

"And Matt!" Caroline added, her bottom lip trembling.

Bonnie was confused. "What?"

Her heart heavy, Elena informed Bonnie that Matt was missing. "It's not right; he has no part in this."

Bonnie shook her head. "We're all in this, Elena, don't you get it? And not because we want to be." She hadn't meant for it to sound so harsh, but it hardly seemed fair for Elena to be the center of attention when she wasn't the only life in danger. Dead because of Elena was still dead.

Tears streamed silently down Elena's face and Damon and Stefan both rose to go to her. They halted at the same time, but Damon took a step back, ceding, and Stefan took Elena into his arms.

Bonnie sighed guiltily. "It's not your fault," she said. "It's no one's fault. We're at war."  
Caroline stood and crossed her arms. "We need to bring _Tyler_ into this. He's involved too. Katherine said he's needed to break the curse, which means that this Klaus guy will be coming for him too. He deserves to know that."

Damon rolled his eyes at her. "Your new boyfriend is staying out; I think that maybe wolfboy won't be OK with the whole me-killing-his-uncle thing."

Caroline glanced around the room, embarrassed. "He's not my boyfriend." She took a deep breath: standing up to Damon took preparation. "We can tell him it was self-defense. It sort of was – he tried to have you killed. He threatened Elena."

"Well, Tyler may not like that we're vampires," Damon countered, and it sounded like he had a long list of reasons to keep Tyler in the dark.

Caroline made desperate eyes at Stefan, pleading for his help. And Stefan couldn't help but help her. "I think she might be right, Damon. We don't need to be afraid of Tyler."

"He doesn't want to hurt anyone," Caroline continued. "He's lonely."

Damon growled. "I told you not to make friends with him, blondie."

"He's been trying to connect with me, because of what I did for him. He won't leave me alone! He deserves to know, Damon," she whined.

Damon and Stefan exchanged looks, with Stefan nodding once.

Damon gave in with a groan. "It's on you," he said to Caroline, dragging her eyes to his.

She agreed eagerly, and felt intense relief sweep through her.

Damon looked around the room at each person there. "And Mason was self-defense – is that clear? He attacked me, I fought him off. He died. I covered it up to protect our secrets. That's that as far as little Tyler Lockwood is concerned. We might as well add that Katherine had him wrapped around her evil, psychotic little finger. He was dead regardless."

Everyone agreed to stick to the slightly modified truth.

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The room had become a vector for fear, so the dissatisfied group disassembled. Elena and Jeremy went home. Bonnie came along, not feeling safe in a home that had already been violated. Caroline had wanted to speak with Tyler right away, and left as soon as she had permission. Rose's eyes and demeanor expressed desire for more intimacy with Damon, but he waved her away, remaining with Stefan and pouring drinks down his throat, straight from the decanter.

They were silent, occasionally sharing despairing looks.

"We need-" Stefan began.

"Don't say it," Damon interrupted, followed by a desperate swig.

Stefan finished anyway: "We need Katherine." He spent all day fighting it, but it was the truth; Katherine was their only hope.

"No way. Even if she could help, she wouldn't. She'd turn on us the _second_ she got the chance. We can't trust her, and we're not smart enough to play her. We tried that, and if it weren't for a defection we would have failed. She knows too much about this whole thing. I don't know what she held back from Elena yesterday, but you can bet she didn't tell her everything. She can use that information to _use_ us." He paused. "How did she look?"

Stefan didn't answer at first. "Even with the blood Elena had given her, she was weak. Drawn. She was still working the dress, though," he added, intoned with a humor his face didn't show. And a misery.

Damon had turned away, towards the fire. "We locked her up, we're not letting her go. If we let her go…"

"It's a moot point. We can't let her go."

Damon ran his free hand through his hair. He kept inhaling as if he were about to speak, but he said nothing.

Stefan knew what Damon wasn't saying: it was a good thing he was busy, or else he would have been haunting the woods, the ruins. Knowing she was there. Trapped beneath his feet. Wasting away but not dying. Completely at his mercy, almost as much as when she had been writhing at his feet. Damon was dreaming about the tomb, Stefan knew, because he was too. All of this was going on, and he still couldn't get her out of his fucking mind. And that's what Damon was thinking too. The other elephant in the room. It was so easy to say she meant nothing to you, only slightly harder to _try_ to kill her. Twice he'd had the chance, and twice he'd hesitated.

"This guy Slater, he knew about the tomb," Damon suddenly said. "He was some kind of intel nexus, a walking encyclopedia. If he knew, then others know. No matter what Katherine said, I couldn't believe that she didn't want her freedom. But maybe she's counting on someone finding her someday."

"Will the spell expire? Do they do that?"

Damon shrugged. "If it does, it won't be any time soon." His nostrils flared. "We're too dependant on Bonnie. I'm so fucking tired of witches and their fucking spells."

Stefan sympathized, without the rancor. "Well, this witch that created the curse sounds like a different kind: why ask for such a high price in blood? Three deaths?"

Damon downed the rest of his scotch. "Tyler is the only weapon we've got."

"We can't control him. And look how easy it was for us to take out Mason."

"But they don't know about Tyler – element of surprise, and all that. What about Caroline?"

"What do you mean?"

"Controlling Tyler." He raised his eyebrows.

Stefan crossed his arms. "We're not pimping out Caroline. Anyway, Tyler doesn't even like Caroline. I go to school with these kids – I know them better than you do."

Damon shrugged. "She's hot – I don't see much else mattering to a dick like him. I think it's worth a try."

"He should be pliable enough once he learns his life is in danger."

"Well, you'd think so. Or he might just take off and run."

The day ended much the way it had begun: in terrified idleness.

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In Chapter 2

The gang tries to gather more information any way they can, Stefan and Damon talk to Caroline about Tyler, and Katherine and Alexandra move forward on their plans.


	2. Chapter 2 Thursday

Previously

Katherine's daughter, Alexandra, has come to Mystic Falls, and is supplying her mother with blood (RIP Matt) while she figures out how to break the tomb spell. Bonnie's grimoire has been stolen. The group decided to reveal (almost) everything to Tyler and to get him on their side; Stefan and Damon believe he might be the only thing they've got going for them.

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CHAPTER 2 – Thursday

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Alexandra did some shopping the next morning. She brought her new purchases, and the unfortunate sales representative with her to the tomb.

"Knock, knock," she chirped after pushing the door aside.

Katherine was at the entrance immediately. "Darling."

Alexandra gave the compelled woman a light shove and she walked towards Katherine in a daze. "A late breakfast."

Katherine smiled, smelling up the woman's neck before taking a bite.

"And I come bearing gifts."

Katherine licked her lips clean. "Is it Christmas?"

Alexandra handed her a bag of clothes and amenities. "I've also got your things from the bed and breakfast. And this." She handed over a large, black handheld radio.

"A walkie talkie?"

"It's a short wave radio. I've got the other one." Alexandra held hers up. "As long as I'm in Mystic Falls, we should be able to communicate. It's pretty simple. The instructions and extra batteries are in the bag. It's already on the correct frequency. I wasn't sure if you'd get cell phone coverage down here. But I brought yours – it's with your other stuff. You were smart to leave it in your room and not take it to the masquerade. Elena could have really screwed things up if she had decided to make some calls."

Katherine nodded with approval. "Emily Bennett's spellbook – I'm very impressed. That was bold."

Alexandra smiled. "No one was home at the Bennetts. I compelled the postman to go in there and steal it for me. Little Miss Bonnie had left in on her bed! Obviously she'll notice it's missing. Fortunately, there are some new magic folk in town, and I think she'll look there first. Unfortunately for us, Jonas Martin is among them."

"Jonas Martin? He's Elijah's."

Alexandra was somber. "I don't know why there are Martins here or what they're up to."  
"Keep an eye on them."

"Did you get a chance to flip through the spellbook?"

"I did." The corners of Katherine's mouth turned up. "Breaking the enchantment keeping me in here will not be the challenge I feared. The curse of the sun and the moon is so powerful that we should be able to use the energy of the moonstone to do it. All we need is a blood sacrifice of the witch who did the spell, and then a witch to perform the break."

"Piece of cake."

Alexandra left the saleswoman behind. Katherine would be out of there soon enough – they had might as well let the tomb house what it was meant to, instead of the living dead. Besides, she was busy: she had an awful lot of kidnapping to do.

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"I can't do it, Stefan. I can't sit in those classrooms, trying to hold it together while teachers drone on about mitochondria and Huck Finn. The walls are closing in on me. It's not me – I'm not afraid for me. It's Jeremy. And Jenna. And you. And Caroline, and Bonnie. And _everybody_! You heard Katherine: it's gonna be a bloodbath if Klaus doesn't get his way. And it's going to be a bloodbath if he does. I just-I can't do it."

Stefan put a supportive arm around her and she took comfort in his shoulder. "I'll take care of it. A little compulsion here and there – it won't matter that you missed some school."

Elena shook her head. "I can't even worry about that. Honestly, I don't even care right now. But we've got to tell Jenna. I want you to be there. I need you there to show her."

Elena had tried another day at school, but it wasn't working out. She took to the parking lot at lunch and knew that she wasn't going back in. Stefan, ever observant, had followed her. Before long, Caroline, Bonnie, and Jeremy had joined them. No one could focus on coursework or lectures. No one wanted to.

"Tonight we tell Aunt Jenna," Elena announced to Jeremy.

He nodded grimly. It was about time.

"Bonnie, I want you there," she added.

Jeremy again agreed.

Bonnie had a trustworthy face. She had the demeanor of a truthteller.

Caroline sniffled, and everyone turned to her. Stealthy tears poured down her face. "He's dead." She shook her head, trying to climb back to denial but already accepting the difficult fact. "He's dead."

"We don't know that," Elena proclaimed, awkwardly loud. Denial.

"What else could it be? He's not at home. I actually called his witch of a mother even though she hates me – oh, no offense, Bonnie – and she hadn't seen him. He wasn't at work yesterday, or at school today. Tyler hasn't seen him. No one's seen him, Elena!" Caroline sobbed and stuck a fist into her mouth to stop herself.

Bonnie pulled Caroline into a hug, but the witch didn't have any words of comfort. Stefan took a bit of a step in her direction before exchanging a look with Elena: one down. The first casualty.

Stefan was too sympathetic to ask it aloud, but he was asking himself: who did it? Was it a calculated effort to attack their morale? A warning? Or was it a random kill?

"You're sure Katherine's in the tomb?" Jeremy asked, echoing Stefan's first thoughts.

Elena nodded. "When I pulled out the blood she couldn't help it – she tried to get at me, but she wasn't able to pass the barrier. The spell's intact."

"And we're sure she was working alone?"

Stefan stepped forward in an oratorical fashion: "Katherine isn't the type to have friends or long-term allies. She uses, and then disposes. I thought she cared about Pearl and the others from 1864, but she sent them all to their deaths just to fake hers. With Mason and Lucy both gone, I doubt she's let anyone else in on hers plans – even they were largely in the dark. She doesn't trust anyone. People who aren't trustworthy rarely do."

"You're forgetting someone," Elena said.

Stefan perked up, intrigued. "Who?"

"My mother."

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Bonnie did a locator spell using Elena's blood. Unfortunately, Isobel was in D.C., and the imprecision of the spell rendered it useless in such a small and populated area. Every phone number they'd had for her was either disconnected or it belonged to someone else now. Alaric wasn't able to offer them anything useful. Elena, desperate, called John Gilbert, but he either couldn't help or didn't. Isobel became a dead end.

Damon, over the phone, suggested that they post something on Craigslist. Or Facebook, or Twitter. "Whatever." Elena furrowed her eyebrows, but she did it.

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Bonnie wasn't able to find Luka during the first half of the day, but he came up to her as she was heading to class after lunch. She felt weak from the spell and had to concentrate to steady herself. They greeted each other, and she tried not to act suspicious, but she couldn't help but wonder whether the Martins were responsible for the theft of the grimoire. Being warlocks, they probably knew how to magically open a lock, but the broken window could have been a ruse for throwing suspicion on another party.

She knew she couldn't ask him directly – a flat-out denial was sometimes the easiest lie, and if he wasn't guilty he might be offended.

She lulled him with an innocent discussion of her ancestors and spellbooks in general before specifying Emily. She couldn't deny it: Luka knew something about the grimoire. He may or may not have stolen it, but the Martins were interested in it.

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While Jeremy, Elena, Stefan and Bonnie gave Jenna a rude awakening, Rose and Damon talked with every supernatural they had ever met. They asked the same questions: "What do you know about the curse?" Where is Klaus?" "Who are the Originals?" "Where are the Originals?" "What can they do?" and most importantly: "How can they be defeated?"

Most of the little information they gathered were rumors. One vampire had even claimed that the Originals were nearly invincible – able to heal from stakings and shake off vervain like it was hot water.

Damon and Rose looked at each other and frowned.

Damon was more convinced than ever that a werewolf might be the only way to stop the Originals.

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After Stefan left the Gilberts', he called Caroline and asked her to meet him at the boardinghouse.

"How are things going with Tyler?" he asked, motioning for her to sit down in front of the fire. Damon crept into the room.

She shrugged. "He's doing OK. All he can think about is the 21st."

"The 21st?"

"You know. The full moon," she whispered, leaning forward.

"Oh. Right."

"It's a week from Saturday."

"What we want to know, _Caroline_," Damon intervened, "is how he's handling the news about Mason."

She bit her lip and nodded once. "Right. Of course."

"So….?"

She came perfectly clean: "Well, he's not happy, naturally. I think it's mostly that he wishes he wasn't the only one. You know, the only werewolf. He wants to know why you and Mason were fighting in the first place. But he understands how it could have happened - the aggression – because he feels it himself. Sometimes, when he's describing it, to me – I don't know, I almost think they're as bloodthirsty as we are. It's not just the shifting; they're _really_ cursed."

"Are we gonna have a problem?" Damon asked, growing quickly annoyed with her wayward conversation.

Stefan raised his hand, and put it to her another way: "Does Tyler have vengeance on his mind?"

She swallowed. "I told him that you wouldn't have hurt Mason unless you had to, Damon – which was a dirty lie – and I think he believed me. I just think we should give him a little bit more time to get used to…everything. But he'll be glad that we can help him, when the full moon does come. We can make sure he's tied up, and everything."

"We're not gonna be anywhere near him when the full moon comes," Damon assured her.

Caroline frowned.

Stefan lifted another mediatory hand. "Damon's right, Caroline. It's too risky. But we have to make sure that Tyler won't hurt anybody. Mason said that they lose control. They'll kill anything in their path. Damon has Mason's chains and we know that Mason was planning on using the slave quarters at the old Lockwood house for that night. We'll make sure Tyler won't be a danger to anyone."

Caroline nodded.

"So, you and Tyler…" Damon began suggestively.

Caroline maintained her confusion for longer than was believable before stating firmly that she and Tyler were just friends.

"But…you could be more, right?" Damon continued.

"_Excuse me_?"

"It's glamorous, you know. Kate Beckinsale. The whole star-crossed thing. Girls like you eat this up. I know you read _Twilight_. Team Jacob, right?"

Caroline blushed, not at the quality of her leisure reading, but at the reference to her and Damon's brief but intensely twisted affair. With the memory of his abuse came the memory of how great the sex had been.

"Damon," Stefan chided.

Damon ignored his brother except to move straight on to the point: "Listen, Caroline. Tyler…might be the key to saving all of us. I don't like saying that, but it's true. He might be the only one who can…kill Klaus."

Caroline's eyes went wide. "Ki-kill Klaus?"

Stefan exhaled loudly and leaned back. "It may be our only real option."

"Suicide? _Suicide_ is our only _real_ option?"

Stefan laughed at her – he couldn't help it. But he sobered quickly. "We're hedging our bets."

"Tyler is a person. You're just like Katherine if you're gonna treat him like some chess piece. He's scared, and he's alone." She stood up. "You wanna use him and you wanna use me." She looked pointedly at the younger brother, hurt flashing in her eyes, before she turned towards the door.

Damon shrugged, almost in agreement.

But Stefan jumped up. "No! Caroline, no. It's not like that."

"Really? Because that's exactly what it sounds like." She faced him as she spoke, and then swiveled back towards the door, her arms held protectively against her chest.

Stefan latched onto her forearm and held her in place; she sighed, annoyed. He spoke directly into her ear so that she would know how important his words were and would listen: "Klaus is coming. He is coming for Elena. He is coming for Tyler. He may very well be coming for Bonnie. If he succeeds, they all die. If we prevent him from doing what he wants to do, _they all die_. And don't forget he needs a vampire, which may very well be any one of us. So: we kill him. And Tyler is our best bet. Damon and I – we don't know Tyler. But you do. You've developed a connection with him which is now stronger than the one he has with anyone else, especially with Matt…missing. I don't want you to exploit that connection. I just want you to make Tyler see the big picture here. It's like you pointed out last night: he's in danger too."

Caroline sighed, pressing her eyes tightly closed and then opening them to Stefan, her anger replaced with soft fear. She nodded. A suicidal plan was better than no plan.

"I knew there was a reason why we tag-teamed this stuff!" Damon exclaimed.

She rolled her eyes at him. It almost made her feel like an honorary Salvatore.

Stefan smiled at her reassuringly, and she felt like this was her family, her vampire family.

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Jenna was not in the mood to deal with John when he knocked on the door. "Please tell me you're not staying," was the first thing she said. She didn't even have the energy to go into a tirade against him about keeping her out of the supernatural loop.

Elena stepped into his eyesight. "What are you doing here?"

John was as collected as ever, but his fidgety pocketed hands betrayed a hint of bashfulness. "When you called, earlier, I could tell something was wrong. So I came."

Elena frowned, confused and surprised.

"Are you OK?" he asked. He narrowed his eyes. "You are _you_, right?"

She smiled. "Yeah, it's me."

"So, what's going on?"

Elena couldn't deal with the drama of having her father/uncle around in addition to everything else, touched as she was. She sketched out the current situation and sent him away with a mission of finding Isobel and more about Klaus. He was reluctant to leave, but she reassured him that information was far more important than another human trying to protect her.

"You should have called me earlier," he said. "I would have come right away. I would have to come to help my daughter." Elena squirmed at the word. He sighed: "If you don't want to be my daughter, that's fine: I'm still your uncle."

"What could you have done? You left after Katherine got here."

"You boyfriend drove me out of town, don't forget. And I had reason to believe that Katherine wouldn't hurt you."

"Reason?"

"I had been told."

"By Isobel?" Elena asked.

"Yes, by Isobel." His tone left reason to believe that Isobel wasn't the only one.

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Before John left, he paid Alaric a visit.

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Chapter 3

Elijah and the Martins make their move, Katherine attempts her prison break and wreaks romantic havoc.


	3. Chapter 3 Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Previously

Jenna learned the truth, Uncle/Daddy John visited Alaric, Alexandra brought Katherine some stuff, including a radio, and Katherine figured out from the stolen grimoire how to break the tomb spell.

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CHAPTER 3 – Friday, Saturday, Sunday

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Alexandra had been out of town, but fortunately she had already returned when she heard the radio beep. It was bulky in her purse, but it fit. She pulled over to the side of the road and answered the transmission: "_Mama_?"

"There's someone here, Alexandra," Katherine whispered. "It sounds like three people. They're about to open the door."

"The Salvatores?"

"I don't think so."

"Get ready," Alexandra replied. She parked, grabbed some supplies from her trunk (avoiding the unconscious woman under the blanket), and took off running for the woods.

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"Well, this was lucky," Alexandra remarked, sawing off Elijah's head with a large pocketknife. Taking him by surprise, she had managed to push him right into Katherine's waiting stake, one of many weapons she had left with her mother. The Martin warlocks were with him. She had knocked them unconscious.

"We had might as well do this now," Katherine said.

Alexandra agreed joyously. She shoved the body to Katherine, and the elder vampire deposited him and his head into her growing graveyard.

"I'll be back," Alexandra called out as she returned to her car.

The inaccessibility of the tomb, even with Alexandra's speed, was growing bothersome. Fortunately, it was about to not matter at all.

From her car she brought rope and her abductee.

Katherine hovered at the barrier, excited. In one hand she held the grimoire against her chest, and in the other she held the gleaming moonstone.

"Ready, _Mama_?"

Katherine stretched and arched her back. "You could say that."

"A snack?" she offered, holding up the unconscious form of Jonas Martin as she secured him in rope.

Katherine's eyes glazed over with desire, but she reined in her thirst. "We need them to wake up."

A voice called out her name from above before descending underground.

"Katherine?" Isobel scanned the scene. "I'm here."

Alexandra nodded her approval. "Good timing. They're coming to."

"We were sorry to bother you," Alexandra apologized. "But we needed a third."

"It's no bother," Isobel replied in her typical shielded fashion.

"You know what to do?" Katherine asked.

"It's simple enough," The young vampire was taken-aback to see the fearsome Katherine so contained, but she didn't let it show. Alexandra was watching, judging. They didn't trust her yet.

Maybe they shouldn't.

Alexandra pointed to Luka. Isobel nodded, and took him topside with her.

Growing impatient, Alexandra kicked the other two. It had taken long enough to wait for Isobel – it was time to get this show on the road.

Jonas Martin leveraged himself against the wall and sat up groggily. "What have you done with my son?"

"Ah, Mr. Martin. Excellent." Alexandra clapped her hands once and stepped towards him. "This is Katherine Pierce." She dipped her head towards her mother. "She has been sealed in this tomb, and you're going to set her free. I assume that's why you were here originally?"

"Where is my son?"

"Dear Luka is outside with our friend Isobel. He's alive…for now. When Isobel sees Katherine, she'll let Luka go. If Isobel doesn't see Katherine, she'll eat him." Alexandra made a slurping noise. "This is your motivation. Are we clear?"

Jonas glared, and then nodded.

"Good. Let's do this quick, before you have a chance to cross us."

"Elijah?"

"Elijah is dead. _Dead _dead."

"I don't know the spell."

"That's OK, _we_ know the spell. It was put in place by Emily Bennett in 1864. You've heard of Emily Bennett, correct?"

He reluctantly nodded.

"Then you've probably heard of her spellbook," Katherine said, laying the grimoire open in front of her, turned to the page of the spell in question. To its left she gently set the moonstone. "A spell can be broken using the blood of the witch that made it, is this not so?"

Again, Jonas nodded through clenched teeth.

"Fortunately, Bennett witches aren't so hard to come by." Alexandra scooped the still unconscious and tightly bound Lucy into her arms and tossed her into Katherine's embrace. Katherine brushed the witch's cheek gently, waking her. Lucy's eyes opened, and then focused on Katherine in terror.

"Hello, Lucy," Katherine said with sweet menace before delving her teeth into Lucy's neck. She drank Lucy almost down to the last drop, and then used her fingernail to slit her throat wide open. "I'm afraid you've lost my friendship," she said as she held her over the moonstone, and a red stream landed on top of the silver rock, splashing off and around it. Katherine could feel her die in her arms, and she let the corpse fall.

"Check!" Alexandra announced, mimicking the gesture of writing a checkmark.

Alexandra dragged Jonas over to the grimoire and forced his face down on top of it.

"The power contained in the moonstone should be enough to break the seal forever – just read the spell, Mr. Martin," Katherine said, pointing down at the book.

"Don't forget about Isobel and Luka," Alexandra reminded him. "No one else has to die."

"That's easy for you to say!" Jonas cried. "They will not be pleased that I've released you and lost the moonstone."

"Well, I don't see that you've got much of a choice," Katherine pointed out. "Not if you love your son. The spell, now, please." She had memorized the words from the grimoire, and knew when he began to speak that he was following their orders.

The lantern flickered as he finished the incantation.

Katherine tentatively stuck her foot over the boundary.

It worked.

Jonas was acutely uncomfortable as Alexandra cut his ropes with her teeth. She patted him on the cheek. "I hope we don't have to be enemies. I had to free her. I'm sure you understand."

He nodded, unsure if she was genuinely asking for his sympathy.

Katherine picked up the moonstone, licked it clean, and dropped it into her jacket pocket. She sped outside to look at the stars, redolent in her freedom.

"Thank you, Isobel," she said, nodding.

Isobel let the now awake Luka free, and he ran down into the tomb, calling out his father's name.

"You'll not harm Elena?" Isobel asked cautiously.

Katherine let the accusation slide off of her: "I've got no need to." _Anymore._

Isobel left, and Katherine went back down, only to find the Martins dead.

Alexandra sighed: "They were hatching something." The grimoire had been moved, and was open to a different page.

Her mother shrugged. "Oh well."

Katherine and Alexandra took the warlocks and Lucy to the corpse depository. They collected the grimoire and Katherine's other things. Alexandra put the stone back into the closed position and they took off, planning to never return there if at all possible.

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Elena stayed at home, close to Jenna. Being there to help her aunt through the process of accepting gave her a small sense of control. She tried to convince her that life was still life, and that life went on. In doing so, she nearly convinced herself. The others stayed away: Jenna was not yet persuaded that vampire Caroline, vampire Stefan and vampire Damon weren't dangerous (to her, anyway), and that Bonnie, though a witch, was still Bonnie.

Sheriff Forbes found Matt's body Friday morning, and Kelly Donovan returned to town to make funereal arrangements for her son. They all mourned him in their own way. Elena carried around her guilt in the form of a constant stomachache. Caroline and Tyler bonded over losing the one person in their life who seemed to be good through and through.

In terms of the coming storm, everyone continued to feel useless. Jeremy worked on his whittling. He spent time with Alaric, after school, learning about his arsenal and helping him to build it up. Jenna was upset with Alaric for keeping the truth from her, and enabling her niece and nephew to engage in dangerous situations with dangerous beings, so Alaric had the time to spare. He learned this after coming by to see her, only to be sent away by a Jenna who was too angry to form words. She did, however, allow him to have a word with Elena.

Elena approached the door, curious. "What is it, Alaric?"

"Your uncle came to see me."

She furrowed her eyebrows.

"He made a pretty good case for why I should do this," he said, placing his ring into the palm of her hand.

Elena shook her head. "I'm sorry, Alaric: I can't marry you. I love Stefan."

Alaric laughed, and then held up his arm to stop her as she tried to hand it back. "It's a Gilbert ring. It belongs on a Gilbert. And the way I see it – you probably need it more than I do, right now. In fact, I'm about as far removed from this curse thing as I could possibly be while still being in the know."

"I can't take this from you, Alaric. I know how much it means to you: it's a symbol of Isobel's love for you."

He shook his head. "I've got wedding photos for that. I'm moving on – this is good for me. Take it. I'm sure she would have wanted her daughter to have it." Before _she became the monster she is now_, he left implied.

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"Oh, Kathy, dear, you're back," Mrs. Flowers' greeted. "Your sister wasn't sure whether you would be."

"Yes, I'm back. Is my room still available?"

"It is. Here, let me take your bags for you."

"Thank you. My sister will be staying with me – is the room next door free as well?"

"I'll get Maria up there to clean it. It should be ready by dinner time."

"I'd like to pay in advance for two weeks. We may be in and out of town, that won't be a problem, will it?"

"Oh, no dear."

"Wonderful."

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Stefan caught Damon pacing in front of the windows, staring out of them.

It was as if they could see the ruins of Fell's Church from there.

"Are you wondering about how to get the moonstone?" Stefan asked.

Damon stopped in his tracks, a rueful smile tugging at the corners of his mouth; he wished his thoughts had been so focused.

When Damon didn't answer, Stefan continued: "Because I've been thinking that Katherine may be weak enough at this point that we could send Tyler in after it. He's strong, with supernatural healing. She probably wouldn't be able to stop him from taking it."

Damon mulled it over. "Well, Elena gave her blood on Tuesday. It's Sunday. I know I'd be in bad shape, but Katherine has been a vampire for 518 years."

"Even after the blood that Elena gave her, she was still debilitated. She wasn't walking well and she sounded worse. Lucy really did a number on her."

"Maybe we should just leave it down there. Let it rot along with her."

"I'm sick of not doing anything!" Stefan suddenly shouted, exasperated, though for once not with his brother. "We're going to visit Katherine tomorrow. You and me."

Damon nodded.

He resumed staring out the window.

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Stefan knocked on the Gilberts' door. Jenna answered, and gave him a wary look before allowing him to enter. Elena appeared in the door from the kitchen, and he felt such a stabbing pain to see her goodness and her beauty, and to not know whether he would be able to save her.

"Stefan."

"Elena."

"Is there something going on?"

"No. No, I'm just here to see you."

She hung back in the door, giving Jenna a look that told her aunt that she should leave.

She had been cooking dinner; she wiped her hands off on her jeans. The smell of spaghetti filled the house.

He took a step forward. "I wanted to make sure that you were OK."

"I'm…" She didn't finish the sentence.

He nodded. "I know."

She shook her head, seeming to fight everything that was wrong for just one moment that was right, and ran into his arms.

He kissed the top of her head, took in the heady scent of her shampoo, and then met her lips. Their kiss was long and passionate, but she pulled away and stepped backwards. "You should probably go. I don't think Jenna is quite ready to be around you yet. We're about to eat."

He quivered for her, was almost desperate enough for her to reach out and yank her back, but Stefan understood; he nodded. "Damon and I are going to speak to Katherine tomorrow."

"I want to come."

"I think it's better if you don't."

"She's not dangerous to me, Stefan; not if I stay where she can't touch me."

"I know she answered a lot of questions for you, Elena, when you went to see her. But it's like you said: she really didn't have anything else to say to you, she walked away. I think Damon and I might be able to get more out of her if you're not around."

"I get it: you're going to try to charm her, and you don't want me watching."

Stefan furrowed his brow at her. "What? No. Nothing like that. I can't touch her - you know that."

"Who said anything about touching?"

Stefan drove the conversation elsewhere: "If the three of us are there, she's never going to say anything of substance. She'll just keep trying to distract us. If it's just me and Damon, I think we might be able to get something out of her."

When Stefan's phone began to ring, she began taking slow steps backwards.

His puzzlement was easily solved when he answered Damon's call: "She's out," was all Damon said before he hung up.

Stefan frowned at the floor and then looked up in realization: "Katherine."

She smiled. "I told you I was getting better at this." She took off into the kitchen, but then reappeared in the door. "Please tell Jenna to stir the sauce."

He heard the kitchen door slam closed and she was gone.

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Stefan sped home. Damon, Rose, and Elena were waiting for him.

"What the hell happened? How did you know?" he demanded, almost out of breath from the rush.

Damon and Elena exchanged a look.

Damon handed a piece a paper to his brother.

Stefan read it:

_Damon,_

_ Please accept this gift._

_ Katherine_

Stefan waited anxiously for Damon to explain more.

"I went up to my room after I got back from talking to Caroline," he began, "and found Elena unconscious and…" he sped up, "tied to my bed."

Stefan's eyes grew bulbous. "What?"

"I untied her, and woke her up."

Her wrists had been bound to the posts, but her feet were free. He had slit the ropes using the knife on his nightstand. He put his hand on her cheek, felt her warmth, smelled her humanity. She stirred slowly awake and stared at him, her expression inscrutable.

"Who did this?" he had asked, putting a hand under her arm and helping her to her feet.

She ignored his question, throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him into a kiss.

He'd kissed her back. He knew something was wrong, but the full strength of his will power was not near enough to push her away.

The note fell out of her shirt when she finally did step away. But he didn't notice; he was too busy searching her eyes for an explanation, for a hint of love for him.

She had regained her full mental faculties. "Damon?" she asked in confusion.

He shook himself out of his narcotized state.

"What? Where?" she mumbled. She looked around. And then she remembered. Everything.

Stefan was trying to accept the story with his dignity intact. He pressed his face into his palm, appearing thoughtful, but mostly just trying to keep ahold of himself.

"She was at your house, pretending to be you," he finally said.

Elena gasped and stood. "Jeremy! Jenna!"

"They're fine. She's gone."

Stefan stood, and began to pace. "She kidnapped you?"

Elena sighed and then told him what had happened.

She had run out to the grocery store to buy a few things. With Jenna still recovering from the stabbing, Elena was doing as much around the house as she could.

Elena had already opened the door, had already glimpsed Katherine sitting on her bed, when she heard Jenna ask puzzledly from the bottom of the stairs whether she had just gotten home.

Katherine put her finger against her lips. "Shhh."

Tremors rippling through her torso, Elena turned slowly to face her aunt and forced a smile. "No, I've been home for awhile."

Jenna, so often tragically oblivious even as she now knew the truth, picked up on the strangeness in Elena's manner but not on her fear. "You didn't unload the groceries?"

"Oh, no, the groceries! I forgot."

Jenna did not pursue the other questions aroused by her observations, and she nodded, satisfied, before heading into the kitchen.

Katherine used the same finger to beckon Elena inside. "Shut the door."

Elena did as was asked, and then surreptitiously slipped her hand into her pocket and fumbled with her cell phone, trying to call Stefan.

Katherine was in her face before she could hit a single button. She flung Elena's hand away and snatched the phone deftly. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, Elena. And here I wanted us to get along. We are family, after all."

"We're a little more than that," Elena pointed out, amazed she could speak when she could barely swallow. "How did you get out?"

"I've got my ways."

"What are you doing here?"

"Maybe I just wanted to hang out. I've been awfully lonely in the tomb. I would have gone to see Stefan and Damon, but you know, sometimes I get the impression that they don't like me all that much." Katherine pouted her lips. "And then sometimes I get the impression that they like me so much they don't know what to do."

Elena had a number of smart remarks that she was prepared to use, but Katherine didn't give her the chance. She swung them around until they were facing the mirror and then she made a sexy pose. "You're not using what you've got, Elena. Trust me: I know. But you seem to be doing all right." Katherine inclined her head towards the nightstand where Elena's diary lay opened.

"You've been reading my diary."

"Of course. It's a thing I do. I wanted to get to know you." Katherine walked over and picked up the diary. "Have you told Damon what you've written about him in there? Have you told _Stefan_?"

Elena didn't answer.

"I didn't think so." Katherine laughed. "We've got a lot in common, Elena."

Elena frowned; she was tied of hearing that. "What are you doing here, really? You can't make a deal anymore and you're not going to kill me."

"So sure, are we?" Katherine shrugged. She bent Elena's head to expose her neck and bit.

With her hand over Elena's mouth, Elena's scream didn't amount to much. Katherine drank a little, and then disengaged. She stuck her finger into Elena's mouth, pressed it against her incisor until the skin was pierced, and forced several drops of blood down Elena's throat. The punctures on Elena's neck healed.

"You'll have to forgive me," Katherine apologized, "but I just had to know what you tasted like. Our blood. My blood." Katherine licked away the little bit of blood that remained and then forced Elena upright. "But you're right, I probably won't kill you, not this second. I've got something for you to do."

Katherine ripped off Elena's vervain necklace and put it around her own neck.

Elena, if possible, grew even more terrified. "You're going to compel me?"

Katherine laughed. "Oh, it won't be the first time, Elena. You really ought to start ingesting vervain," she pointed out. She felt the compulsion take hold, and she told Elena exactly what she was going to do and what she was going to remember.

Katherine had marveled at the strangeness of knocking one's own self out as she threw Elena over her shoulder and took off out the window.

Elena looked at Stefan and gestured helplessly. "She said it wasn't the first time that she had compelled me!"

Damon tried to hide his guilty look.

"Why would she reveal to us that she was out?" Stefan wondered. "Just to mess with us? It doesn't make any sense."

"It doesn't matter," Damon argued. "We would have figured it out tomorrow. She probably knew that, somehow. She has probably been spying on us."

"And how did she get out?" they all wondered aloud.

Phone tree style they got the message out. Stefan called Bonnie, only to learn that she had not been involved. He asked her to come over.

He then called Caroline, and asked her to bring Tyler so that they could go investigate.

"Maybe I should get him a leash," she said. "I'm starting to feel like his handler."

"I'm sorry, I know. But we need him."

As they headed out to the tomb, Damon couldn't believe it. He had been preparing himself all day for going to talk to Katherine, getting himself ready for it. And now, not only had he lost the upper hand, but he might not even get to see her.

"What if the Originals really can heal from a staking? What if Elijah is still alive? Or, undead. Whatever. He compelled Elena – he knew that Katherine and the moonstone were down here. Maybe he was here first," Damon suggested. "I can't really understand why he would let her run wild, unless she was trying to get something for him."

"But what about the spell?"

"It was a powerful spell. But it was still just a spell. If Grammy Bennett and baby Bonnie can bring it down, I don't see why Elijah couldn't. The Originals have been associating with witches – they've got daylight rings."

Stefan ran his hand through his hair. "This could be bad. If they've got the moonstone..."

"Well, let's send Tyler in there to see."

"That won't be necessary," Bonnie said, holding one hand up to the barrier, her eyes closed. "The spell's down. Somehow."

Damon raised his eyebrows. "You first, Caroline."

She gave him a dirty look.

Tyler was less than willing to begin with. But after spotting the massive amount of blood in the tomb entrance, he was vehemently refusing. Caroline was by his side, she frowned before turning to him: "The good news is that she isn't in there _anymore_."

He was mildly comforted.

Stefan took the plunge and verified Bonnie's claim. With flashlights, the whole group headed inside. The smell led them quickly to the bodies.

"Uh, Damon," Stefan began. He shined his flashlight onto the free floating head.

"Elijah," Damon said. "So it's true: Originals can heal from a staking."

"But not from a beheading, it would seem," Stefan pointed out.

Bonnie gasped as she saw Lucy, Luka, and Jonas Martin. She began to cry, and Caroline held her close.

"Snapped necks," Damon concluded, looking at the Martins. "Executions."

Bonnie, sniffling, explained who they were.

"Warlocks," Stefan and Damon said in unison, looking at each other.

Damon walked over to Bonnie and stood in front of her. "Two new warlocks in town, and you didn't think to mention it?"

She held her ground. "I don't work for you. Magic is _my_ business. I had no reason to believe they were involved with any of this."

Incredulous, Damon's eyes grew wide. "You didn't find their arrival at all suspicious? Katherine gets put in the tomb – they show up? In _Mystic Falls_? The grimoire goes missing. And now Katherine's free, and they're dead."

Bonnie hung her head. "I needed some support. I didn't want to believe they were trouble." She broke down again, and wished Jeremy was here: he was maybe the only one who truly understood the strain of witchcraft on her and its resulting loneliness.

Tyler was looking back and forth, waiting for further explanation. Caroline obliged: "They were probably able to take down the spell keeping Katherine in the tomb."

"And now she'll be coming after me?" he asked.

Caroline nodded.

"And she looks like Elena?" he asked, still not quite able to understand it.

Caroline nodded again. "Exactly like Elena. If she's pretending to be Elena, you won't be able to tell."

"And she can get into your house," Stefan pointed out.

"And she's stronger than me," Caroline added. "You should crash at Matt's," she suggested. "Maybe I should too."

Stefan went to speak, but Damon was already saying it: "I've got a better idea."

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"I haven't forgiven you," Jenna said, handing Alaric her suitcase.

He nodded in understanding.

"So, you're moving in with Stefan and Damon?" she asked.

He laughed. "You gotta admit: this beats my crummy little apartment." He looked up at the imposing façade of the boardinghouse.

She agreed.

"But I guess you're moving in too," he pointed out. "For now, anyway."

"Yes. Apparently my niece's evil vampire twin has access to my house. So I'm moving into her vampire boyfriend's castle-like boardinghouse with my not-boyfriend, where I may or may not be safe." She added sternly: "We will not be having adjoining rooms."

Alaric was extremely accommodating. As soon as Stefan and Damon told him what they had in mind, he agreed. If he resided at the boardinghouse, no vampire would be able to get in without an invitation.

Alaric was kind enough to invite Stefan, Damon, Caroline, and Rose inside.

"No one else," Damon said. "Not without our approval." _Not Isobel_, his eyes seemed to say.

"And don't _ever_ invite Elena in," Stefan impressed upon him.

"Yeah, I got it," Alaric laughed.

At Elena's insistence, Jenna relocated temporarily to the boardinghouse. As the Petrova doppelganger's family, she was both vulnerable and a likely target. Jeremy and Elena joined her, little more secure even with their rings. Caroline and Tyler also became temporary inhabitants, being at such high risks for Katherine shenanigans as ingredients for curse-breaking. They both had to deprive their parents of vervain so that they could be compelled into accepting the new living arrangements.

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Chapter 4

Although tensions are high in the close quarters of the boardinghouse where the gang is hunkered down, they find some peace in Katherine's inexplicable absence, however, it's largely overshadowed by grief over Matt's death. As the full moon approaches, Caroline helps Tyler accept what's coming, but his real resource is Charlotte, another werewolf who was sent by John to protect Elena.


	4. Chapter 4 The Calm Before The Storm

Previously

Katherine was able to break the tomb spell, after killing Elijah, Lucy, and the Martins. She compelled Elena to kiss Damon and stole a kiss with Stefan herself. Damon and Stefan had Alaric move in with them, and Jenna, Jeremy, Elena, Caroline, and Tyler are also staying at the boardinghouse while Katherine, who has invitations to their houses, is on the loose.

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CHAPTER 4 - The Calm Before The Storm

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The next week was uneventful. If Katherine was still around, she kept to herself. With Elijah and the Martins dead, Rose was the only reminder that something was looming on the horizon.

Tyler spent almost as much time roaming the house restlessly as he did staring at the calendar. The full moon was Saturday night. Damon handed over Mason's chains, and Tyler announced that he was going to practice tying himself up in the basement.

"I'll go watch," Caroline stated, following after him. "I mean, help," she amended, stopping for a second before speedily catching up to him.

Bonnie didn't think that was such a bad idea, but she was in the middle of a game of checkers with Jeremy, and something told her he didn't want to be abandoned. Again.

It took Tyler a while to get the chains sorted out.

"If I'm in the form of a wolf…" he couldn't finish the sentence, it was too preposterous.

Caroline sighed, and gave him her best encouraging look. "I know, I know. You still can't believe it. But you have to: you saw your uncle. You know it's true."

Tyler leaned back and stared at the ceiling.

Caroline took his hand. "What were you asking?"

"If I'm in the form of a wolf, I don't see how these chains could hold me. I mean, wolves have smaller legs, and stuff." He held up his own arm, looked at it, and shook his head.

"These chains are special. They're like that kind of knot that only grows tighter if you resist it. In your wolf form, if you try to pull out of the knot, it will clench around you. Your uncle had been using these for a whole year: they work."

He let himself believe her assurances.

"And I'm going to lock the door to the dungeon behind you. You shouldn't be able to break out, even if you do somehow escape from the chains. Then I'll come back the next morning to let you out."

"There seem to be plenty of dungeons around here," he noted, looking around him.

"Damon doesn't want you in the house…"

"Oh. Right." He sighed.

Caroline was silent.

"I don't want to hurt anyone, Caroline."

"I know that, Tyler. I know."

"Mason said that he loses control when he turns. He almost killed you."

"But he didn't," she pointed out. "And when you called out to him, he backed off of Stefan. You got through to him."

Tyler pondered that.

"Maybe you can learn to control yourself." She bit her lip. "Maybe I can help."

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Stefan was going to check on Caroline and Tyler, but he heard something going on outside

They were squaring off in the yard.

Tyler landed on his knees in front of Stefan, his eyes yellow.

"Wait! Wait!" Stefan ran into the center. "What's going on here?"

Caroline jumped to her feet from lying on her back and Stefan leapt protectively in front of her.

Tyler had turned around and was growling, but his aggression was dissipating. His eyes were back to normal.

Caroline laughed. "Stefan, it's OK. We're just sparring."

Tyler scratched the back of his head and chuckled. "I'm a much better match for you when you aren't taking me by surprise," he said to Caroline. "Hitting a girl takes getting used to."

Stefan turned around and faced her. "You're teaching him how to _fight_ us better?" he whispered, clearly angry and slightly incredulous. "Maybe Damon's original inclination was right: you and Tyler should not be friends."

"I don't want to be out of control," Tyler said, obviously picking up on the trend of their conversation even if he couldn't hear it.

Stefan turned 90 degrees. "Then maybe you shouldn't be giving into it."

"Dude, what's the problem? I'm trying to figure how to not hurt anyone. I don't want to be dangerous. I don't want _any_ of this."

"Uh, Tyler, give us a minute," Caroline pleaded. She nodded to him, and the werewolf sighed and went back into the house.

Stefan turned fully back to her.

"I thought you wanted him to kill Klaus," she reminded him.

Stefan crossed his arms. "Well, I figured we'd sort of…I don't know, _unleash _him. We don't want to teach the only person who could kill us with one bite how to do it better. Showing him our weaknesses."

"I'm learning just as much about him as he's learning about me. You're just as bad as Damon: you don't trust anyone."

"That's not true, Caroline. I just…" he sighed. "I made an overture of peace to Mason, and he didn't want anything to do with it. And don't forget: he almost killed you."

Caroline smiled. "You were there to save me."

"That's all I'm trying to do right now. Damon killed Mason, but Bonnie and I were part of it. If Tyler ever figures that out…"

"He'll forgive you. He just doesn't want to be alone. Look at what you're doing for him, letting him live here to keep him safe, teaching him about what he is."

Stefan shook his head. It was so much more complicated than just looking out for Tyler's welfare. And if Tyler ever figured out that Damon had stabbed Mason unprovoked, and that they wanted him to kill Klaus….well, he wouldn't just forgive them.

"When he fights the…wolfiness comes out," she continued. "His eyes were golden, did you see? I'm trying to help him come back from it, to learn how to control it." She smiled softly: "Like you helped me."

Stefan smiled back. He spent a moment on the memory, and then turned back to business: "Is it working?"

"I don't know." She crossed her arms, feigning annoyance: "We were just getting started."

"He said he thought you guys were about evenly matched: is that true?"

Caroline's expression grew slightly more serious. She nodded. "I stopped holding back, and he was still able to throw me. I was able to take Mason when I fought him before, but I took him by surprise and fought kinda dirty." Stefan smiled at that. "It must be because I'm such a young vampire. I'm sure you could handle him without a problem. Still, it's something to think about."

"Maybe you shouldn't be doing this. I'll do it."

There was a suggestive glint in Caroline's eye: "No, that's OK. I'll do it." Stefan had seen that look in Caroline's eye before – it usually led to trouble. "Caroline, I'm not sure that hooking up with Tyler is really a good idea right now. You're both extremely volatile emotionally."

She glared. "I know I've had a _really_ bad run of it recently. First you rejected me, about as coldly as someone can without literally insulting their rejecteee to their face. Then I had the pleasure of Damon, who not only fed on me repeatedly while we were in bed together and compelled me to let him, but also treated me like shit, and recently made his second attempt on my life. And then I had Matt, sweet Matt, who finally said he loved me after being hung up on Elena, and whom I had to break up with so that I wouldn't accidentally _kill_ him, and who is now dead anyway. So, yeah, I can see why you would be advising me to get myself to a nunnery, but I'm not giving up yet."

Stefan reached out to comfort her, but she was more angry than sad, so she didn't respond to his touch except to take a calming inhalation. He retracted his arm and changed the subject: "But he could hurt you."

"But he's not going to."

Tyler was watching them through the window. Caroline smiled at him, and gestured him back out.

Stefan ran his tongue along the inside of his cheek, and then reluctantly agreed with a helpless shrug: "OK."

He and Tyler passed each other, and Stefan tried a conciliatory smile. Tyler was stiff at first, but then let it go and nodded back.

"Don't worry about Stefan, he's just being protective," Stefan heard Caroline say to Tyler.

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Matt's funeral was on Tuesday. His body had been found, face down in the creek. Liz had reported the death as a drowning, though she knew it had been a vampire attack. She put Damon on alert, and he pretended to be searching for the vampire, but both he and Stefan assumed that Elijah had been the culprit. Damon knew he would need a scapegoat for the council soon, especially if the body count continued to rise. None of the other dead found in the tomb were from Mystic Falls except for Jonas and Luka Martin, whom everyone assumed were back at their old home, still arranging their move. Stefan smoothed things over in the school office.

Damon kept up a story for the council that the vampire who had killed Matt was likely hiding in the forest. Carol Lockwood, as interim mayor, banned anyone from entering the forest, fronting surveying as the reason. Damon hoped this would keep people out of the forest while Tyler turned, just in case.

Everyone was gearing up for the full moon, and Damon almost wished that Klaus would do something already, because it would be another month before their weapon was viable again, if nothing happened by Saturday.

At the funeral, the Gilberts sat in front with Kelly: Matt's second family. When Caroline and Tyler and Carol sat in the second row, Kelly nodded to them, with a momentary awkward pause at Tyler. The woman's face seemed to say: I deserve this.

Caroline couldn't hold the tears or the sobs back. Tyler kept his arm around her the whole time, and he could see from his mother's expression that for once she approved of his girl.

Caroline leaned over and whispered into Tyler's ear: "Matt was too good for all of us. He was too good to be my boyfriend. He was too good to be your friend. He was too good to be Vicki Donovan's brother. He was too good to be Kelly Donovan's son. Elena was probably the only one who deserved him; but then it was her who brought this on, not that it's her fault. Poor Matt." She buried her face in his shoulder. "Why is everything so fucked up?"

Tyler pulled her closer, but he couldn't answer: grief pounded in his ears. Matt had been his only real friend, and Tyler had never deserved him, had never treated him like a friend deserved to be treated. When he remembered what he had done to Vicki, he felt sick. He knew he wasn't that guy anymore, but he would never get a chance to apologize to Vicki or to Matt

Funerals weren't really Damon's thing, but he attended out of respect for Elena. He and Stefan sat in the back. They could hear each and every whisper. Stefan found it hard to listen to so many grieve for the universally-loved Matt.

"Well, there goes our only other competition for Elena," Damon said, trying to lighten the mood.

Stefan ignored him.

Bonnie scanned the front of the sanctuary, and then, realizing there was not enough room for her, reluctantly sat down next to Stefan. She leaned over and whispered to the brothers: "If you ever have to kill someone, let it be Kelly Donovan: I can't stand to see someone in that much pain." The poor woman had lost both of her children, and blamed herself for both of their deaths. She was completely alone.

"I'll keep that in mind," Damon said. But if he remembered correctly, Kelly had more to offer than just her blood.

After the funeral, no one had anything to say. The mute bunch headed back to the boardinghouse for an evening of silence.

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Caroline noticed Elena looking less than pleased at breakfast. She stuffed large chunks of muffin into her mouth and headed over there. "What's wrong?"

Elena poorly hid her disapproval. "You and Tyler?"

Caroline rolled her eyes. "You too?"

"What do you mean 'me too'?"

"Well, Stefan can't seem to hide his objection. Why is everyone so down on us?"

"Well, Caroline, it might have something to do with the fact that we just buried Matt _yesterday_."

Elena in sarcastic mode reminded Caroline of Katherine and it made her shudder. She leaned over and sniffed her friend.

Elena withdrew and gawked. "What…are you doing?"

"Just making sure that you are _you_. I see that you are. Well, I smell that you are. And you - being you - might not understand this wonderful thing called 'comfort sex'. It's a delightful act of forgetting and physical pleasure. Why do you think Damon and Rose have been at it like bunnies?"

Elena's eyes grew wide. "Damon and Rose?"

"Uh, _duh_!" But then Caroline remembered that not everyone had super vampire hearing like she did. "Did you know that she even has her accent when she moans?"

Elena's face contorted with disgust. "They're sleeping together. I get it."

"Not a lot of sleeping from what I can tell," Caroline replied.

Elena crossed her arms, held them lightly to her chest, and glared.

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It was Friday, and things continued to be at a standstill.

And then there was a knock at the door of the boardinghouse.

Everyone who was staying there was present, and everyone else the least bit involved was otherwise occupied, so the tension immediately became nearly unbearable, and everyone froze.

Damon held up a hand, as if to calm them all down, and he headed over to the door.

He opened it to see a woman around 28 years old. She had the sort of wild red hair that could only be tamed for short periods of time. Her white ruffled blouse and tight jeans said very little about her. Her mouth was confident, but there was something nervous behind her eyes.

"Damon Salvatore?" she asked. He placed her accent as French, though perhaps not _de l'hexagon_.

He kept the door only partly ajar, leaning on its edge and the doorframe. "Who's asking?" he responded flirtatiously.

She smiled. "My name is Charlotte. I'm here to help you."

He raised his eyebrows. "Is that right? And what makes you think that you can help us, _Charlotte_?"

"Because I can do things that you can't do," she stated simply, but not without an egotistical smirk.

"Why don't we talk out here on the porch," Damon suggested, moving forward.

She slid in between him and the door and entered the foyer. "I'm not a vampire," she said.

"But you're something…" Damon surmised, closing the door behind him and following her into the center of the room.

"I'm a _loup-garou_."

Jeremy perked up, recognizing the word from his research. "You're a werewolf too," he said, staring.

Tyler looked at her more closely.

Charlotte nodded to Jeremy. "John sent me to protect you. And your sister."

Elena stepped forward. "John Gilbert?"

Charlotte swirled around to face her. "Yes. We're…friends."

"He sent you?"

"We met a few years ago. He followed the rumors, and found out they were true."

"How did you trigger the curse?" Tyler asked.

Charlotte sniffed the air. "You must be Tyler Lockwood."

He crossed his arms defensively. "Yes."

She smiled warmly, but it rang false. It was overshadowed by sadness. "I've never met another one of us. Not one that wasn't in my family, anyway."

"How did it happen?"

Charlotte sighed. "It was a car accident. I was so tired; it was late at night. I hit a woman on a bicycle. At first it seemed like she might pull through, but she died in the hospital a day later. That was a year ago."

Damon had to wonder about the timing; he knew from his interrogation of Mason that the other werewolf had turned about a year ago as well. "And this was where?"

"Quebec."

"Are there others in your family?" Tyler asked, eager to learn as much as he could as quickly as he good. He glanced briefly at Caroline, who smiled, ecstatic for him.

Charlotte pursed her lips in pain. "My father. He's been dead for some time."

Tyler swallowed, trying not to hide his increasing discouragement.

Alaric, trying to turn the mood around, walked over to Charlotte and introduced himself, shaking her hand.

Jenna noticed Charlotte examining Alaric's hand, searching for a wedding ring. She did not find that acceptable.

"You and John, huh," Jenna said, stepping forward. "But he's such an ass."

Charlotte laughed. "_Il est un homme difficile__._ John is a complicated man."

"Why didn't he come with you?" Jeremy asked.

Charlotte shifted two accusing eyes to Stefan: "He was under the impression that he wasn't welcome here."

Stefan looked away guiltily.

Charlotte turned to Elena: "He only wants what's best for you. He's not very good at…talking about things. I know that he thought he was having a real heart-to-heart with you before Katherine stabbed him."

"Do you know Katherine?" Damon asked. He picked up on something in her tone.

"She has been my friend more often than my enemy – John's stabbing aside – but I understand that's not true for you folks."

Damon laughed. "Katherine doesn't have any friends. She lies, she fucks, and she manipulates – usually all three at the same time."

"I have no loyalty to Katherine."

Damon was not inclined to believe her, but there was a hint of truth to her statement, some reservation that kept her statement from being entirely false. "But you are loyal to someone, aren't you?" He stepped closer to her, diving seductively into her personal space, and turning on his twinkle-eyes.

"If you want more of John's sloppy seconds, you'll have better luck with Jenna," Charlotte responded defensively.

Elena furrowed her brow: "Sloppy seconds? What does she mean, Damon?"

"Well, that's when you sleep with someone that someone else has already-"

"I'm familiar with the expression. _Who_ is she talking about?"

Charlotte chewed on her lip uncomfortably. "I thought it was common knowledge that Isobel, like other members of her family past and present, was not immune to Damon Salvatore's charms. But I am."

Elena's jaw dropped in an almost comical fashion. She narrowed her eyes at Damon.

He shrugged with a nonchalant laugh. "Relax: this wasn't a couple of weeks ago, it was a couple of years ago. When I turned her. Not that I should be reminding you of that." He gestured for Charlotte to sit down, and she accepted. He moved in and leaned over her. "Who are you trying to protect?"

Charlotte looked around the room, and then decided that sharing her secret might gain their sympathy and their confidence. But she knew it meant that she could no longer maintain her façade. She sighed, blinked forcefully, and let a frightened vulnerability show. "I have a son, Henri. He's 7 years old." A tear squeezed out of her left eye and rolled down her cheek. "He triggered the curse."

Everyone gasped.

"But how?" Tyler demanded.

Charlotte was crying freely now, and she shook her head as it to deflect from the importance of that part of her story. "It was an accident. A gun." She swallowed back a sob. "But that's not the problem. He's been kidnapped. By Klaus! Klaus is going to use him to break the curse." She forced her lips together tightly and shook her head several times rapidly. "The ritual can't happen. Klaus will kill him. So, you see, I have every reason to help you."

"Why would they kidnap your son?" Damon asked. "I'm sure Klaus and the Originals already know about Tyler."

Charlotte shrugged. "I suppose they thought a little boy would be easier to handle. He's not as strong."

Elena sat down next to her and took her hand comfortingly. "We'd be glad of your help. And we'll do what we can for you."

Stefan and Damon exchanged a look. They knew it wouldn't be that easy.

Rose gestured Damon over to her. He waited for what she had to say.

"We can't trust her," Rose claimed, whispering in his ear. "She's a werewolf. There's a reason why we wiped them all out."

"She doesn't want Klaus to get Elena. That's all that matters."

Rose, not for the first time, felt a jealous churn in her stomach. Elena wasn't all that mattered to _her_. "Just keep an eye on her."

The group broke up, and Tyler took the opportunity to get Charlotte to himself. They sat down on the couch and spoke at length.

Damon, Rose and Stefan took Elena aside and had her call John. He confirmed that he had sent Charlotte to them. She had a text from him that she had missed, notifying them that Charlotte would be coming.

"He could have been compelled to say that," Rose pointed out.

"Uncle John, compelled?" Elena asked doubtfully. "I'm pretty sure he had a stalk of vervain surgically implanted in his arm, or something fanatical like that." Elena was considering a similar operation, given her recent brush with compulsion. Of course, worse things could have happened. Now without her necklace, she was on a daily diet of vervain, as were all of the non-vampire inhabitants of the boardinghouse and their friends and family. Instead of caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee every morning, there was vervainated and non-vervainated.

She and Damon had not discussed their kiss. She had expected him to hound her relentlessly about it, but he treated her no differently. In fact, he was distant, more distant than he had been the whole time that she had known him. How could he no be thinking about it when she was thinking about it so much? She was alarmed: was it because he was afraid, or because he was focused? Was it because of Rose? Ever since Caroline's revelation, Elena found it impossible not to observe the couple. Damon treated Rose with a respect that Elena wasn't used to seeing. In fact, she thought herself to be its only recipient.

The close quarters had ramped up Elena's sensitivity, and she now felt that she could hardly turn a corner without seeing the two of them together. Damon neither hid their relationship, nor exploited it in Elena's presence, which Elena found curiously infuriating. Why wasn't he trying to make her jealous? Why wasn't he being Damon?

Damon noticed her glaring at him, and followed up on it: "What is it, Elena? Is this about your mother? It's not like I knew she was your mother. In fact, I didn't even know you then."

Elena found the topic distasteful, she frowned and swallowed. "It doesn't bother me. That woman isn't my mother. I don't even look like her; I'm a doppelganger. She's descended from me, not the other way around."

"I guess you could look at it that way. Well, if it means anything, I would take it back now if I could."

It did mean something to her, though she tried not to let him see that.

Caroline walked over to them, and saved Elena from further deception.

"There's something off about her," Caroline commented, being sure to draw Stefan's attention to her comment so that he would be included in the discussion.

"What do you mean?" Elena asked.

"Tyler has so much to learn from her, but she doesn't seem to want to talk to him. She has already taken a phone call, retrieved her jacket from her car, and gotten into a _long _discussion with Jenna about Coke Meshers, whatever those are, like anyone cares."

"Croque-Messieurs," Stefan corrected. "They're French pastries with cheese and ham. Quite delicious. Quebec-"

"Don't worry, he's in the 12-step program for know-it-alls," Damon said to Caroline, putting his arm around his brother and patting him affectionately on the shoulder.

Stefan faked a grin through his teeth.

"Well, did you hear what I said? She's, like, avoiding him."

"I'm sure she's just worried about her son," Elena assured. "Plus they'll have a lot more to talk about on Sunday, once Tyler has, you know, been through 'it'."

Caroline nodded and reluctantly dropped the subject.

They all knew that "it" was coming the next day.

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Chapter 5

Katherine and Alexandra return with a vengeance and no one is safe.


	5. Chapter 5  Full Moon

Previously

John Gilbert's girlfriend and acquaintance of Katherine, Charlotte, a werewolf, showed up at the boardinghouse to help protect Elena. Her werewolf son was kidnapped by Klaus to use in the curse-breaking ritual. Stefan is wary of Caroline and Tyler's burgeoning romance, while Elena is mysteriously (in _her_ mind) disturbed by the closeness of Damon and Rose. Everyone is tensely waiting for the full moon, and recently-absent Katherine's reappearance.

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CHAPTER 5 - Full Moon

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Bonnie didn't know what the evening would bring as she set out from her house. She knew the full moon would be that night, but what did that really mean? Tyler and Charlotte would change, but hopefully they would be contained in the underground slave quarters of the old Lockwood Mansion.

And then what?

Bonnie knew that everything would somehow end up on her shoulders. The only other witches she had ever met were all dead: Grams, Lucy, Luka and his dad. The rest of her family had little interest in the craft. Bonnie had less than zero interest, but it was too late. Katherine had intimated to Elena that Bonnie would likely be the one needed to break the curse of the sun and the moon. Slater had said that "a witch would be able to figure it out", how to render the moonstone useless, but Bonnie wasn't that witch. Without the grimoire, she felt like nothing. She could still do most of the spells she had already done, but nothing new.

After the Martins had been found dead, she had, with Stefan's help, snuck into their house and searched for the spell book, but it wasn't there, and there wasn't a clue to be found.

She hadn't done a spell all week as she tried to recuperate, and get back to full strength. Jeremy was the only one aware that she was to the point of nosebleeds, but Damon had been acquainted with enough witches to know that their power wasn't unlimited. Bonnie knew that she had to be ready for whatever spell she might have to do, at whatever time. Everyone's lives could depend on her.

This was exactly what she was thinking about when she felt a knife slide into her gut. She hit the pavement, her purse crashing to the ground beside her, the contents spilling and rolling. She put her hands on her stomach and crumpled up her shirt, pressing it against the wound to stop the blood flow. Then she looked up, and saw Mr. Roberts, her next door neighbor, coming at her with a large kitchen knife in his hand. She hadn't even noticed him in his yard. She crawled backwards, too weak to stand, too panicked to think, but she wasn't fast enough. He drove the knife in a second time, and the blood was no longer oozing out, it was pouring. He turned the knife to increase the size of the penetration.

Bonnie felt herself slipping away, and she no longer had the strength to do anything but lie there. She could barely even remember where she was and what was going on. She saw Elena out of the corner of her eye, and then it went black.

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Bonnie came to in the backseat of a car.

She sat up, and then the long-haired figure in the passenger seat turned around to face her. "Welcome back, Bonnie," Elena said.

No, not Elena. Katherine. Of course.

"What happened?" Bonnie asked, still a little groggy. The bright light through the windows was assaulting her.

"I saved your life!" Katherine sang happily. "No need to thank me."

It took a moment for all of the implications to dawn on Bonnie. "Mr. Roberts, my neighbor, he stabbed me."

Katherine shook her head. "I know. Not a very nice man."

"No, actually, he was a very nice man," Bonnie contradicted. "You compelled him to attack me so that you could save my life and I would be indebted to you!" she accused. "But that wouldn't work! You can't save me from yourself."

Katherine shook her head, denying. "No. _I _didn't compel him."

Bonnie frowned, taken aback. Then it came to her: "Someone else did."

Katherine reluctantly admitted that it was so. "Poor compelled Mr. Roberts _was_ going to kill you. And you _were_ going to die. I stopped him. It's all legitimate, Bonnie."

"And then you gave me your blood, to heal me."

"You're welcome. Now, don't make me kill you so that you can finally fulfill your dream of becoming a vampire," Katherine deadpanned. "Believe it or not, despite their high mortality rate, I _do_ know other witches and you _are_ expendable."

Bonnie took a deep breath, and tried not to show all of the fear that she was experiencing.

"I'm actually going to let you off rather easy," Katherine continued. "Just one little spell. Well, maybe not so little. But one all the same. And it'll be in your best interests…for the most part. But until then…" Katherine stuck a chloroformed cloth over Bonnie's nose and mouth and held it there until Bonnie lost consciousness, and then held it for a little bit longer.

Alexandra climbed into the driver's seat.

"Did anyone see anything?" her mother asked.

"Just one woman across the street; I took care of it. I cleaned up the blood, and then headed down to the Sheriff's department: no one knew that anything had happened. We're in the clear until our next move. It's 6:00 now - dinner time. The full moon is scheduled to rise in two hours, and it will be at its peak at midnight."

"Put her in the trunk; we should be heading over there."

"Will she wake up in time?"

"Of course; I wouldn't take that chance. I don't think she'll prove too intractable once she does; she's got enough left to lose."

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Elena wrung her hands nervously. "Bonnie isn't answering her phone. She had said she was heading over here; she ought to be here by now."

Everyone looked around at everyone else, but no one said anything. The last person to be missing was Matt, and it hadn't turned out well for him.

They were all gathered in the main room at the boardinghouse, waiting for Tyler and Charlotte to decide it was time to lock themselves up.

"I'm going to look for her," Jeremy said, standing up.

Elena grabbed his arm. "Not so fast."

Jeremy shook her off. "Something could be wrong. She doesn't have people looking after her like you've got people looking after you." He started heading for the door.

Elena darted a look at Stefan that said: "Stop him".

Damon was the one to intercept the youngest Gilbert. "It's OK; I'll go."

Jeremy protested: "I want to go."

Damon patted him paternalistically. "I know, you want to show off for you girl, but why don't you leave this to the big boys."

Jeremy glared and went for the door again.

Damon leaned in and whispered: "I will stop you, however necessary. Do you really want to get a neck wringing in front of everyone?"

Jeremy looked away, laughing mirthlessly. He brought his eyes back to Damon: "Find her."

Damon left.

He heard a rustling in the bushes as he headed down to the street, but he assumed it was a squirrel, like it normally was. One that had managed to escape Stefan. Stefan always claimed that he never ate squirrels, but Damon never believed him.

And then Damon felt liquid fire pulsing through his veins. The pain disabled him completely, and he fell, convulsing, onto the grass, but his mind was still with it, and he knew he'd just gotten an injection of vervain. He looked around for the person who was going to die once he recovered, and saw Katherine dance her way into his view. She stood over him, one foot on each side of his torso, and put her hands on her hips. "Hello, Damon."

"I won't let you take Elena!" he declared, forcing the words out with every ounce of his strength. His voice didn't amount to much, and he knew that no one inside would have heard him.

Katherine cleaned her nails. "Relax. I'm not here for your precious Elena. Or for Stefan. Do you care about anyone else? No. So stop struggling."

He did care. Somewhere in him, he cared for almost everyone in there, but he wasn't sure whether he wanted her to know that or not.

She ended her pretense of distraction and turned her attention back to him. "You feel good between my legs, Damon." In a nanosecond she had dropped down, now seated on his lower stomach, straddling him. "I never thought the day would come when I would have to vervain you in order to do this." She laid one arm flat beside his head, and lied down on his torso. She played with his hair with one hand, and with the other she lovingly stroked his face. And then she gave him the sort of kiss that made her Katherine.

He was too weak to throw her off, but he resisted…until he didn't resist anymore. Even through the pain he enjoyed the kiss more than he wanted to.

"Why are you doing this to me?" he demanded as soon as she had pulled away. "You said you never loved me. Just leave me the fuck alone."

"Damon, you should know better than to believe anything I say."

He shook his head. "You're just playing more games with me." He sounded like he was crying, and he wondered if he was.

She laid her finger across his lips. "Shhhh." And then she shot him up with another dose of vervain and he slipped out of consciousness.

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Charlotte had spent the night at the boardinghouse. She knew that none of them were sure about her yet, but none of them doubted the story about her son. They could tell from her manner that she had been telling the truth, that her little Henri was missing. She bit her nails when she was alone. She tossed and turned all night, and had dark purple bags under her eyes. She was a wreck.

She explained that John was talking to all of his contacts, trying to find out more about Klaus. Rose kept her distance, but did take the trouble to inform her that John wasn't likely to find anything out, not if Rose had lived a few miles from Klaus, and Trevor had worked for him, and the two of them hardly knew anything about the phantom vampire.

Damon had tried to get more out of her about Katherine, but she had kept her mouth closed on that subject, saying only that Katherine had told her about the curse and warned her about vampires trying to break it.

She had spent the rest of the day cooking a feast. She told Tyler that it was good to be as sated as possible before shifting. It made them less vicious and generally lazy when they were in their wolf form. They stuffed themselves with potatoes and pasta, as well as steak and chicken, until they couldn't fit anymore. Tyler made a joke about putting on weight, but Charlotte explained that they had very high metabolisms, especially in their wolf states.

The wall clock announced 7:00 PM, and Charlotte announced that it was probably a good idea to get themselves secured.

Tyler and Caroline exchanged a look, and then ducked into a corner for a private kiss and a hug before they headed off to the ruins of the old Lockwood property. Tyler was jittery, but he calmed under Caroline's touch.

Charlotte had been speaking with Jenna and Alaric, as the only adults (so to speak) they had congregated almost unintentionally. All of the sudden she whistled quite loudly, taking everyone by surprise. They were more surprised when she reached up, grabbed each side of Alaric's face, and snapped his neck. He plummeted to the ground, horrifically bouncing off of the coffee table on the way down.

Jenna screamed.

The door opened, and then two beings flashed around the room chaotically.

Charlotte raced over to Tyler, stuck a needle into his side, and then dragged his unconscious body out the door. She paused to say just how sorry she was, and the tears shimmering in her eyes led credence to her regret. She looked at Elena. "I have to save my son. That has to come first. If you see John, you have to tell him how sorry I am. He didn't know." She repeated the last sentence again as she disappeared out the door. She couldn't move as quickly as a vampire, but her supernatural abilities did allow her to bound away far too fast to be chased.

Jenna drew Elena and Jeremy close to her while she stared uncomprehendingly at Alaric's dead body. The three of them, as humans, were totally helpless as Stefan, Rose, and Caroline were all injected. Stefan and Rose were allowed to remain choking on the ground, but Caroline was abducted along with Tyler. And then the door shut, and it was over, without anyone having seen who had done it.

But they could guess.

Jenna dropped down to Alaric, and Elena ran over to Stefan, opening a vein for him. He managed to show restraint as he drank enough to begin diluting the vervain.

Rose called to Jeremy and told him to go get some blood for her from Damon's stash. She rolled her head towards Stefan. "Katherine."

He nodded. "But she wasn't alone."

"Was it Isobel?" Elena asked.

They didn't know.

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Alexandra's car was full: an unconscious witch, an unconscious vampire, and an unconscious werewolf in the capacious trunk, and two vampires and a werewolf inside.

"Hurry," Charlotte urged. "The moon has almost risen."

The day before, Charlotte had scouted a spot where she could tie herself up during her transformation. There was an abandoned warehouse with a lab and a walk-in freezer that was powered down. It could be locked from the inside, and was far too complicated for her to manage in wolf-form. Plus, she would be chained to the bolted-down shelves.

Alexandra pulled over by the warehouse, and Charlotte climbed out. Her heart was heavy with the death she had inflicted, and the deaths that were about to come, but she couldn't hide an underlying giddiness. "I suppose I'll find out soon enough whether it worked," she said.

Katherine smiled and nodded. "You and your son are about to be free of the moon."

"And tomorrow we'll go after Klaus, and get Henri back."

"That's the plan."

Charlotte reached in through the window and took Katherine's hand. "I owe you everything, Aunt Katherine."

Katherine placed her other hand over Charlotte's. "_Tais-toi, ma chérie. __Je t'aide parce que je t'aime, toi et Henri_."

"We love you, too."

Charlotte took a deep breath and then went into the warehouse.

Alexandra sighed loudly, and it made Katherine roll her eyes. "Rein in your emotions, Alexandra."

"But what we're about to do…now that we're actually about to do it…"

"We don't have the luxury of a conscience right now. You know better than to think I don't feel…something about what we're about to do. But it has to be done."

"I know."

"Drive."

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It didn't take long for them to find Damon where he had been abandoned in the yard. The three vampires recovered slowly but surely while the six of them discussed what to do next. It was clear that Katherine had been involved, but the second vampire was still a mystery. There wasn't much mystery left as to the intent of the kidnappings: one witch, one werewolf, and one vampire pretty much indicated curse-breaking.

Jeremy couldn't help but feel reassured: this probably meant that Bonnie was still alive.

"But why didn't they take me?" Elena wondered, speaking the same question on everyone's mind. "They could have, without much trouble. And why now, why tonight?"

"The full moon," Damon said. "It must be. They waited until the last second. Was there anything in the literature about the curse needing to be broken under a full moon? Did Katherine say anything about it?"

Elena shook her head. "She wasn't that specific."

Damon pressed forward with his theory: "That's gotta be it."

Jenna couldn't help but look at Stefan and Damon like she blamed them; her joy at learning about Logan Fell's demise (one of the facts that had led her to accepting Stefan and Damon) was now totally gone, and she was back to wishing that life was normal, and that the nicest most decent boyfriend she had ever had was still alive and holding her tight, and not lying under a blanket in the Salvatore's parlor.

She had gone to her room to cry. Elena and Jeremy felt guilty for not going up to comfort her, but they wanted to be a part of the action. Things were going down, and something had to be done.

"We're not safe here anymore," Elena said, looking at Alaric.

Between the brothers, Damon looked the guiltier of the two. When Damon did decide to feel guilt, it overshadowed Stefan's. Alaric had been his friend, and now he was dead. "He's dead because we asked him to help us."

"He's dead because he gave me his ring," Elena commiserated.

Stefan was in a pragmatic mood: "No, he's dead because Katherine wanted Caroline and Tyler."

"And she got them."

Stefan looked as if he hadn't quite gotten that far in his thinking. The thought of a helpless Caroline on some sacrificial altar made him loose feeling in his arms and legs.

"Call Uncle John," Jeremy commanded. "Or I'll call him."

"Charlotte said that he didn't know what she was going to do."

"Call him to help us. I don't know if you noticed, but we're down a vampire hunter, a vampire, a witch, and two werewolves."

"Do you really want to put his life in danger? What is he gonna do?"

Stefan intervened: "No, Elena I think Jeremy's right. We might need his help. He can watch your aunt, or help us take care of Alaric's body. We've got a lot to do."

She finally conceded, and gave him a call. He said he was coming immediately.

Rose was shaking. "She must be working with Klaus. She made a deal for the moonstone. He might be here already."

"That doesn't explain why they didn't take me," Elena said. "And why do they need two werewolves? Why would Charlotte help them if they had her son?"

"She's probably exchanging Tyler for her son," Damon guessed.

"How was Charlotte able to take Tyler so easily?" Rose pondered.

"Extract of wolfsbane," Damon answered. "It must have been."

Jeremy felt proud that he was a contributor to that bit of intelligence.

"We need to find them," Stefan stated simply. "That's what this boils down to. If it's true that they need the full moon, then they're going to be stationary somewhere, doing…whatever they're doing. Elena, I want you to take Jeremy and Jenna and go to Bonnie's house – you should be safe there. If you can think of somewhere better to go, then go there. Somewhere where Charlotte can't find you, since she'll be the only one able to enter. But don't forget about compulsion. Barricade the doors and the windows, do what you have to. Make sure John meets you there, and keep us informed. Rose and Damon, you and I will comb the town for them. We'll split up to cover more ground."

Damon nodded. "Don't engage until we've all gathered again. And we can take Alaric's weapons. The vervain grenades and the crossbow. The vervain dart gun won't affect Katherine, unfortunately. We'll have to send Stefan in, to dazzle her with his good looks."

Elena was looking at Stefan, her eyes wide with fear. "Is it such a good idea for us to split up?"

"Damon will make sure you get to Bonnie's." The brothers exchanged nods. Stefan pulled Elena to her feet and kissed her forehead. "Nothing is going to happen to you."

It had been over an hour since the kidnappings had gone down, and even with all of the fresh blood, the vampires weren't fully recovered yet. They all continued to sip on blood bags, and Stefan wondered what kind of control he would have the next day, but there was too much going on for him to worry about the next day. He needed to be his strongest.

They had pulled out a map of Mystic Falls, and the three vampires were divvying up the land. Rose wasn't familiar with the area, so Stefan was explaining some of the geographical features and indicating the likeliest spots to find Katherine.

Jeremy pulled out his phone and found that the full moon was peaking at midnight. It seemed a likely time for whatever ritual was about to happen. None of them could believe that the curse was going to be broken, unless somehow there was another Petrova doppelganger wandering around.

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Elena had gathered Jenna, and the two of them and a reluctant Jeremy were heading out to the car with Damon. The vampires had finally recuperated the majority of their strength, enough for searching anyway.

"I see you took most of the forest," Rose commented. "Are you protecting Damon? You don't want him out there with all of those werewolves potentially running around? Is that why you sent him with Elena? You have to be worried about them. He _is _in love with her. And while I'm hardly impartial, since he's what you could call my 'type', there's just something about him. I don't see how she could resist. I don't say this to hurt you, Stefan."

"Why are you helping us Rose?" Stefan asked, changing the subject.

She frowned. "I thought we were past all of this suspicion business."

"It's not that," Stefan clarified. "I'm just wondering why you decided to help us instead of running. Here we stand, without half a chance, but you are willing to stand with us."

"Trevor and I were never lovers. But we were life partners, I guess you could say. When you spend centuries with one person, and then you lose them…what do you do? I feel so empty that I marvel I can even keep upright. I suppose I'm here with you, feeding on fear, trying to let the fear push the grief and the emptiness away. I think if I ran again, I'd just run until I died. You see, I have nothing left to live for. I figure I might as well go out having done something good. Not to sound pessimistic," she added dryly.

Stefan's brow was more furrowed than ever, and Rose wasn't sure what to make of his expression until she felt, for the second time that day, vervain coursing through her bloodstream. He'd pricked her with a syringe in her side. And he'd given her a much larger dose than she had received earlier. She blacked out to the sight of his troubled face.

This was why he had sent Damon with Elena.

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Stefan beheld the sight before him: the moonstone lay in the middle of a tree stump, surrounded by lit candles. Two sleeping wolves, one very small, were situated around the stump, as was Caroline – all three were bound in rope. Bonnie was propped up against another tree, and someone that he didn't recognize was standing in front of her, holding the grimoire, discussing it with her. Whoever it was, it wasn't Klaus. And then there was Katherine, who had planted herself in front of him with an impressed smile. "Stefan."

"Katherine."

"You found us."

Stefan returned to her a self-satisfied smile. "We used to ride horses around here, you and I. Way back when. I remembered how much you liked this little grove. I told you that this tree," he indicated the stump, "had been chopped down to build my and Damon's cradle. You liked that. It's amazing how it all still looks the same."

Katherine laughed. "You have a good memory, Stefan."

"I loved riding with you."

She tilted her head to the side, examining him. "Are you going to try to stop me, Stefan?" Her tone seemed to say "you don't stand a chance", and he was inclined to agree.

Caroline was waking up. She shifted her position so that she could face them. Her wide blue eyes were desperate, but oddly calm and accepting, as if she wanted Stefan to save her, but knew that he couldn't. As if she wasn't quite sure that she deserved to be saved, as if maybe it wasn't what was best for everyone. She tried to look at Tyler, but she was too weak to lift her off of the ground.

Katherine heard her stir. "Caroline, I think Stefan is here to save you. Don't you feel special?"

"If it'll save Elena, I'm willing to die," Caroline wheezed, crying. "I've killed people. It's my fault that Matt is dead. I just want to do the right thing." He saw that she was tired of being afraid, of hiding who she was, of fighting her instincts.

Katherine was starting to grow annoyed that Stefan was looking at Caroline and not at her. "So, Stefan? What's it going to be?"

"You're breaking the werewolf half of the curse, aren't you?" he speculated. "Is that why you don't need Elena?"

Katherine nodded, rewarding his correct guesswork. "The Petrova doppelganger is only needed to break the vampire half of the curse of the sun and the moon. To break the werewolf have, I need a Vichev doppelganger. Of course, they're not Vichevs anymore, they're…"

"Lockwoods," Stefan ventured.

"Correct again."

"So Tyler Lockwood is a Vichev doppelganger? A doppelganger of the werewolf blood that was used to seal the curse?"

"Exactly. The doppelgangers always pop up around the same time. Witches!"

"But in the same place?"

"It's no coincidence that my descendants settled in this area, Stefan. Although the vampire and the werewolf doppelganger going to the same high school and being friends is quite remarkable. And convenient. Or inconvenient, depending on how you look at it. I couldn't very well swoop in and seduce Tyler with Elena right in front of him."

"Why did you force Tyler Lockwood to turn by compelling Matt and Sarah? You didn't need him to trigger the werewolf gene, did you?"

"Well, my original plan was to hand over the moonstone, the Petrova doppelganger, and a werewolf to Klaus in exchange for my immunity, but that sort of got blown when the Originals found out about Elena on their own. I didn't need the werewolf doppelganger for that, just a werewolf. "

"But you've got Charlotte, and I'm guessing that's her son Henri out there. You kidnapped him – not Klaus." Stefan kept the conversation going while he thought – he had so many questions – but he could barely keep his eyes off of Caroline crying in the background. "Why not trade them? It would seem that you've known them for some time."

Katherine didn't answer at first.

Stefan furrowed his brow thoughtfully. "You care about them, don't you? Charlotte said that you were a friend."

Katherine wasn't willing to admit to this. She swung a little on her feet, as was her habit, and then changed the subject: "If I do this, Elena will be safe. Klaus will have no need for a Petrova doppelganger if he can't break the curse, and you're off the hook because it was all my doing. Maybe you should be thanking me."

"Why _are_ you doing it, Katherine? And why aren't you sacrificing Charlotte instead of her son?"

"Don't you see, Stefan? I need a werewolf who wants to kill Klaus. He'll never let me go, and I don't stand a chance against him. Only a werewolf does. If Mason were still alive, he would have done it for me, because he loved me. But Damon killed him. So now Charlotte will do it, because she's going to think that Klaus killed her beloved little Henri. And once I break the curse, she'll be _able_ to do it, because she'll be able to transform _whenever_ she wants to."

It was so ingenious, and so evil. And it would save Elena's life.

Katherine enjoyed watching him digest all of the information, the depths of her duplicity. To see him examine his own inner darkness. "Are you really just going to let me kill Tyler and Caroline and that little boy?" she goaded. "Not that you could stop me."

It was hard, looking at the wolves, to remember that they were people too. No doubt Katherine was keeping them down with wolfsbane injections.

Thoughts and ideas raced through Stefan's head. He wished he could turn it off like Damon. If Damon was here, he would let the ceremony happen, because that's what was best for Elena and for Katherine and for themselves. Stefan had yet to notify Damon about the situation; he had wanted to have the power to make all the decisions. But now he wished his brother was here.

Stefan dashed back into the woods, and dashed back out instantly with Rose. He set her down at Katherine's feet. "Just give me Caroline."

Behind her, Caroline was confused. She raised herself up a little on her elbows.

Katherine raised her eyebrows, impressed. "Rose? Why so eager to save Caroline, Stefan?"

"Because I told her I would take care of her. She's depending on me to protect her and I'm not going to let her down. Let me make the trade: you can have Rose. Any vampire will do – you said it yourself."

Katherine considered this. "I'm a little mad at you, Stefan. You locked me up for eternity. That hurts a girl's feelings."

Stefan jumped over Rose and pulled Katherine into his embrace, sliding one hand down to the small of her back and the other just below her shoulders. He kissed her with everything he had. "Please, Katherine: let me take Caroline with me. I won't stop you. I can't, and I'm not sure I want to."

Katherine was not one to get swept away by anything, but she was not unmoved by Stefan's kiss. The feelings it stirred made her want to grant him what he requested.

Caroline was yelping Tyler's name; Stefan tried to ignore it.

Katherine sped to the stump, picked up Caroline with one hand, and brought her over to Stefan. He went to untie her.

"Careful, Stefan," Katherine warned. "The ropes are soaked in vervain."

Katherine positioned Caroline upright, but she couldn't stand, so Katherine held her up. "Unfortunately Caroline has to be punished for what she did to me, the little part that she played." Katherine turned to her. "You had to know that mocking me was going to come back and bite you in the ass."

"I've been punished," Caroline whispered, terrified.

"What? Speak up, child."

"I've _been _punished," Caroline repeated, forcefully. "You killed Matt. You're killing Tyler. I've been punished."

Katherine pondered that for a moment. "True. But it's not enough." She slapped Caroline so hard that it knocked the baby vampire out; her cheeks were streaked with scratches from Katherine's nails. Katherine then used her nails to slice the ropes, and Stefan caught Caroline as she fell. He hefted her up into his arms in a fireman's carry.

Katherine looked down at Rose. "This has a poetry all its own: the vampire who made me is now going to be the vampire who sets me free from Klaus. She's giving me life again." Katherine used her foot to bring Rose's face towards her. "And her sleeping with Damon doesn't sit too well with me. It'll make this easier." She looked up at Stefan: "I know you, Stefan: there's no way you're walking away from this. You're just too good. And if you did, you'd hardly be able to live with yourself. So I'm going to do you a big favor and take it out of your hands." Katherine caught the syringe full of vervain that Alexandra had just thrown her and injected it into Stefan before he knew what was happening. He collapsed, dropping a wakening Caroline, and the two of them lied there, barely conscious and incapable of doing anything.

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Chapter 6

The events of the night of the full moon continue.


	6. Chapter 6  Free Of The Moon

Previously

Katherine orchestrated an event in which she saved Bonnie's life, leaving the witch in her debt. Charlotte killed Alaric, allowing Katherine and Alexandra entrance into the boardinghouse. The two vampires and the werewolf kidnapped Tyler and Caroline. Katherine is preparing to break the wolf side of the vampire curse, using the werewolf doppelganger Tyler (instead of Elena), Charlotte's son as the werewolf sacrifice, and now Rose as the vampire sacrifice after Stefan exchanged her for Caroline. Katherine is going to frame Charlotte's son's death on Klaus, motivating Charlotte to kill Klaus and free Elena from him. Damon is trying to get Elena, Jeremy, and Jenna to safety while Stefan and Caroline lie helpless as Katherine carries out her plans.

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CHAPTER 6 – Free Of The Moon

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Elena sat in the passenger seat, Jeremy and Jenna in the back. They were silent – it was not the time for chitchat. Mystic Falls was quiet – uncommon for the night of a full moon. It was for the best. Damon had done his best with Liz and Carol to insist that there were no events for the night, and that people were encouraged to remain in their homes and out of the woods.

The car ran quietly, the sound of the tires on the pavement was soothing.

Elena looked over at Damon, and he knew that they were thinking the same thing: they were wishing they could just drive and drive and drive until this place and this nightmare were a distant memory. But they couldn't. It wasn't just duty that kept them there, it was love.

She felt safe in that moment, in the car with him.

"Maybe we should go to Matt's house," Jeremy suggested suddenly. He didn't want to bring the danger into Bonnie's home, and upon her father. The Donovan household was already scarred, already lost.

"Katherine compelled Matt – she may very well have been inside his house. We can't be sure," Damon replied. Bonnie might be a judgey little thing, but she had made sure ever since Katherine's return that the vampire had not gained access. And Elena knew better than to drop in on anyone unexpectedly.

Elena wanted there to be somewhere else that they could go, but there were too many people in danger already…she couldn't bring anyone else into it. She thought about Alaric again, and sighed heavily.

Elena knocked on the door, and Mr. Bennett answered. Elena didn't know what to say to him. Bonnie had almost certainly been giving him vervain, and even if she hadn't, as a warlock – practicing or not - he couldn't be compelled.

"Hello, Elena," he said. His face was creased with worry, and he was regarding her warily. He looked behind her at her entourage. He nodded to Jeremy. "It's awfully late in the day for a funeral," he joked, taking in their serious expressions.

Elena pressed her lips together thoughtfully. "Mr. Bennett, how much has Bonnie told you?"

He crossed his arms. "What she had to, I expect."

"Then you know that something is going on. Bonnie is in danger. She's missing."

His eyes went wide. "She's not with you?"

"She never made it. We think she was kidnapped."

His face was alarmed, and his even tone just barely betrayed panic. "Do you know by whom?"

"We have our suspicions. Stefan is out looking for her right now. We need somewhere to lay low. Somewhere safe."

"I can't invite you in, Elena," he said, narrowing his eyes at her.

She nodded in understanding. "It's OK, Mr. Bennett. You don't have to." Elena stuck her hand inside the door in demonstration.

He relaxed. "I think you can understand why I don't really want you here."

She smiled back grimly, and then turned to pleading: "Please, Mr. Bennett. I'm begging you. My family is in danger."

Mr. Bennett indicated Damon. "He can't come in."

"That's fine. He's going to go look for Bonnie."

"So am I."

"That's not a good idea," said Damon. He was at the end of the driveway, but was able to follow the conversation perfectly.

Mr. Bennett was momentarily taken-aback, but he recovered quickly. "She's my daughter."

"They need her," Elena replied. "They won't kill her; they need her."

"She's my daughter," he repeated, stepping outside and heading for his car.

Elena grabbed his arm. "You're no match for them. Stefan and Damon will find her." The tears in her eyes told him that she needed it to be so.

"Stay here, Mr. Bennett," Damon said.

Bonnie's dad wasn't listening, so Damon walked up and punched him out. He turned to Elena: "Take him inside, and don't let him answer the door."

Elena recovered from her shock and went to grab Mr. Bennett, but Jeremy was already taking him in, followed by Jenna.

"Get in," Damon ordered impatiently.

Elena scurried through the door and then stood in the door frame.

Damon paced rapidly on the sidewalk. "I shouldn't be going. You need someone here."

"No, Damon. I need you to find Caroline and Bonnie and Tyler. Too many people have died already." She wanted him to stay, but she couldn't be selfish.

He pointed at her. "Don't let anyone in. Not _anyone_."

"Be careful," she blurted as he began walking away.

He turned to her and smirked. "You don't want me dead?"

Elena looked down. "I've never wanted you dead," she confessed. Not even as she was staring at Jeremy's broken neck did she want him dead.

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Bonnie's hands were bound behind her back, but she was ambulatory. Stefan and Caroline watched as the unknown companion of Katherine escorted Bonnie to the stump where the moonstone rested. Bonnie was looking at the wolves and at Rose. She was shaking her head.

"I won't do it."

Katherine's bitchy self was back: "Then it's good that it's not up to you."

"It's too many deaths. I won't do it." Bonnie looked helplessly at Stefan and Caroline. They had to fight to summon the strength to even show her that they acknowledged her attention; they couldn't help her.

Katherine nodded to Alexandra.

Alexandra warped over to Rose and axed off her head. She did the same to the two wolves. It was over in less than 20 seconds. A blood fountain. The two wolves had transformed into two decapitated corpses, but it was hard to tell under all of the red.

Bonnie gasped, and then bent over and vomited.

Caroline garbled: a scream that couldn't be. Her eyes were trained on the lifeless body of Tyler…and his severed head.

Katherine raised her eyebrows at Bonnie in disapproving disgust, and then got on to business: "They're all already dead, Bonnie. I think it would be a waste at the point for you not to perform the break. Do you want all of them to have died for nothing? Rose? Tyler Lockwood? Little Henri? Do you really want to go back to Elena and your friends and tell them that you had the chance to save them, but you didn't do it just to _spite_ me?"

Bonnie was weeping controllably. She swallowed and shook her head "Fine. Fine!"

"On with it, then. Their death marks will fade."

Alexandra, splattered with blood, untied Bonnie and handed her the grimoire, and the young witch stepped closer to the moonstone. She picked it up, lifted it into the air, and began reading a long incantation.

Katherine kept her eyes locked on Bonnie, while Alexandra checked the perimeter.

Stefan had seen Bonnie do a variety of spells, but he had never seen anything like this. A golden light shot out of the moonstone straight into the sky, straight at the moon. It flashed, exploded, and then whistled out of existence. Bonnie swooned, falling to the ground, and the moonstone crumpled into dust.

Katherine flew over to Bonnie. "Is it done?"

Bonnie didn't answer; she was heaving breaths.

Katherine dropped to her knees and placed her hand around Bonnie's throat. "Is it done?"

"It's done," Bonnie choked. "It's done."

Katherine turned to her daughter: "Go check on Charlotte."

Alexandra flew off.

Katherine re-shackled Bonnie to the tree and gave her a light helping of chloroform. "Never turn your back on a conscious witch," she explained.

She then squatted down in front of Stefan. "Where's Damon? Or did he not know what you were doing? I can't imagine him having trouble finding another lady friend, so I really don't know why he would object."

Stefan didn't know how to feel. He especially didn't know how to feel about Katherine, who was both despicable, and possibly their savior, through the same act. He ignored her, turning his head up, and staring through the evergreen canopy at the blaringly bright moon.

Katherine wasn't having any of that; she rose and stepped into his view, her gorgeous hair bouncing off of her shoulders like dark clouds. She touched her fingertips to her lips. "That was quite a kiss, Stefan. You even knew it was me. Or did you know it was me before, and you just kissed me anyway?"

He glanced at her, and then away again. "Why did you give me what I wanted?"

She shrugged: "Why not? Rose was going to hand poor, defenseless Katerina over to Klaus. She was going to do the same with Elena, don't forget. And, I don't know, maybe once all of this is over…" Katherine lowered herself down again, took his hand, and pressed his palm against her chest. "…we can be friends." He felt her bare skin beneath his fingers, cold, but hardly lifeless. He looked into her eyes, and wondered how anyone could ever mistake her for Elena, because those were unmistakably Katherine's eyes.

"Don't forget, you were going to hand poor, defense Elena over to Klaus as well," he replied snidely.

Katherine ignored his remark, and intertwined their fingers. "I'm glad to hear that you think about our time together, back in 1864. I'm almost 540 years old, but those were some of the best weeks of my life."

He didn't pull his hand away. "I bet you say that to all of your pawns."

She smiled softly. "No."

All of the sudden Caroline growled and pounced on Katherine, apparently not quite as feeble as she had been leading them to believe that she was, and landing them both on the ground.

"You killed Tyler!" Caroline screeched, punching her. She pulled her fist back, gathering momentum for another blow, but Katherine tossed her off like a fleece blanket and popped up to her feet.

Katherine reached behind her and dusted off her back. "You're a pistol, Caroline," Katherine complimented. "I might actually like you if I didn't…dislike you so much."

Caroline glowered, but she didn't try to pick herself up again or launch another attack. "You killed Tyler!" she cried. Sadness replaced her fury.

"I had to. Saving him was the least I could have done for Mason, but I didn't have a choice."

Caroline was sobbing now. "There's always another way." She shook her head and looked down at the ground, repeating again softly: "There's always another way."

With all of the fresh blood in Stefan's system, he was recovering quickly. He scooted over to Caroline and took her into his arms, even though or possibly because he knew that it would irk Katherine.

"Who was that?" he asked Katherine while he ran his hand up and down Caroline's back.

He knew Katherine was being cagey when she said: "A friend. Her name is Alexandra."

He tried another track: "How did you gain Charlotte's trust?"

Katherine was waiting on news about Charlotte, so she allowed herself to be lured into a conversation. Glancing back to make sure Bonnie was still neutered, Katherine sat down on the ground across from Stefan. "I began learning as much about werewolves as I could as soon as I realized that Klaus wasn't going to let me be. The vampires had already wiped out as many as they could, but the werewolves had been protecting the Vichevs – their doppelganger line. Once I learned about them, I made sure to keep an eye on them."

"If the Lockwoods were the doppelganger line, how come they didn't know anything about it?"

"They used to be far more knowledgeable, but I suppose that a few untimely deaths led to the history of the curse remaining secret, even from them. It wasn't beneficial to me to educate them. Just as it wasn't beneficial for me to educate my own line."

"And Charlotte's family?"

"It was not chance that I learned about them. About 250 years ago, there was another recurrence of the doppelgangers."

Stefan, interested, sat up a little straighter.

"That's right," Katherine continued. "Elena is not the first doppelganger to come after me, just the dullest. Her name was Mabel. And sure enough, the Vichev line bore doppelganger fruit as well: Joshua. Charlotte's ancestors were guarding Joshua. They killed Mabel so that the vampires would not be able to break the curse. So I tried to make a deal with them: I would give them the moonstone, if they would kill Klaus. But they betrayed me – they were terrified of Klaus, and had no intention of holding up their end. Fortunately, I realized this before they were able to break the curse. So, I tortured them until I knew every last cousin, and I slaughtered the lot. It was a lot easier to do that sort of thing back then. But I spared the two youngest, and I raised them. And I've been Aunt Katherine ever since."

"So you've been through all of this before?"

"Oh, yes. I've faked my death before too. Mabel came in handy with that."

"But I thought the werewolves killed her."

"They did. But I had been giving her my blood for years. Ever since she was old enough to be mistaken for me. You never know when a double will come in handy. Once she was a vampire, I arranged for her to be staked in proximity to Elijah. He bought it for a while, but it wasn't long before someone saw me and it all fell through."

Katherine was the type who got noticed.

"Aunt Katherine, eh? I can't imagine you raising a family."

"Don't forget about my daughter, Stefan."

"Oh, right."

"It has been easy to manipulate my little werewolf family by telling them only what I want them to know. Poor Charlotte doesn't realize that breaking the curse requires both a Vichev doppelganger _and _a werewolf sacrifice."

Katherine reached over and ripped Caroline out of Stefan's arms. She held Caroline up by her head in a gesture that threatened to behead the baby the vampire. "If you want Klaus dead, and if you want Caroline here to live, you'll leave Charlotte to her ignorance. Our little secret, eh Stefan?"

Katherine dropped her.

Stefan wasn't yet strong enough to stand, but he clambered over to Caroline and brushed the hair out of her face. "Are you OK?"

Caroline nodded. She glared up at Katherine and then turned back to Stefan and nodded again

"I assume you were responsible for getting Charlotte to trigger the werewolf curse?" Stefan questioned cynically. "But how did you ever get Henri to do it?"

In truth, Alexandra had been the author of that event, but Katherine took the credit: "It wasn't easy, but it should come as no surprise that if you hand a little boy a loaded gun and make sure the safety is off, he'll fire it. All you gotta do is put someone in the path of the bullet, and make sure that they never get medical care, and bingo. Charlotte couldn't handle the thought of her seven year old being a slave to the moon, driven wild by bloodlust and shifting every full moon. That alone was enough to motivate her to help me break the curse, but I knew that I would have to sacrifice Henri, so blaming the whole thing on Klaus gave her that much more incentive. Now all I've got to do is point her in his direction and watch."

"Are you so sure she'll succeed?"

"She has to."

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Alexandra's first stop was the creek. She dug a hole in the ground and threw her clothes into there, and then bathed in the water. Fortunately, she had an extra outfit in the car. The naked run to her vehicle was slightly more exhilarating than the usual run, and she was almost disappointed that no one was quick enough to perceive her.

She couldn't go to Charlotte covered in the blood of her dead son. The werewolf would have no trouble smelling it.

When Alexandra eventually arrived at the warehouse, she found Charlotte standing outside of it.

An unsure half smile formed on Alexandra's face: "It worked?"

Charlotte was still in shock, but she nearly toppled over in disbelief and joy, nodding. "It worked." She howled.

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Katherine's phone beeped. She pulled it out and saw the text from Alexandra informing her that the spell had been successful.

She grinned at Stefan. "All's well that ends well, don't you think?"

Caroline disagreed: she emitted a low growl.

"It worked?" he asked.

"So it would seem," Katherine replied. She tilted her head. "I hate to leave you, Stefan, but I've got things to do." She sped over to the stump and gathered Henri's body. Both parts. "I need this one, but you can have the others."

Stefan had just managed to climb to his feet when Katherine vanished, leaving only a windy wake behind her. He helped Caroline up, and they stumbled over to Bonnie. She didn't wake as they untied her and laid her gently down on the ground.

Caroline cried loudly, staring at Tyler but not going near him. The smell of blood was strong and attractive, but the thought of his death made her sick and the conflict was acutely uncomfortable. She wanted to get away from the body as soon as she could. Stefan embraced her in solace, and she stared at Tyler over his shoulder while she clung to Stefan's jacket and watched her tears darken his sleeve.

Stefan called Damon, holding his phone up to the ear opposite where Caroline had buried her face into his shoulder. "I've found them," he said. He gave him the location.

"What's that noise? It sounds like two mountain lions brawling."

"It's Caroline. Tyler's dead."

"What? He's dead? Did Katherine-"

"I'll explain when you get here." Stefan ended the call.

Caroline pulled away and wiped her face off with her shirt. She was tired of crying.

Stefan moved over towards a tree to help support himself. He ran a hand thoughtfully through his hair and looked up at Caroline. "I'm sorry about Tyler."

Caroline was bitter: she knew that some part of Stefan had let Tyler die in order to save Elena, and that others, like Damon, would have done it without flinching. Because it was Elena. Always Elena. Elena was everyone's darling.

But she couldn't forget how she had been saved.

Her eyes flashed over towards Rose, towards the headless corpse that used to be Rose, and she felt a burden unlike any she had ever felt before. Rose's life had literally been exchanged for hers. But she didn't dwell on it for too long: Rose had lived for centuries - Caroline was only 17. She had been willing to die, but she hadn't, and she couldn't help but rejoice a little, even as she smelled death all around her.

And it was all thanks to him.

Caroline intently returned his look. "Stefan, what you did for me…" She was staring at him, shaking her head in disbelief. Her tears were drying, but they could still be heard in her voice.

Stefan looked her in the eye, and then looked away. "I can't talk about what I did, because then I would have to _think_ about what I did, and I can't do that yet."

She charged at Stefan, wrapping her arms around him tightly. "I was sure I was going to die." She wondered if he was tired of hugging her, but she didn't care: it was what she needed, and maybe he needed it too.

He was tense, but he relaxed enough to run his hand soothingly over the back of her head. "I know. I know."

"Tyler's dead. He's really dead. And that little boy. I saw him before he changed. He was so little. And Rose. And it's my fault."

"Rose isn't your fault. I'm responsible for what happened to Rose. And Katherine. And Klaus. But not you. You haven't done anything, Caroline. You were just sucked into this because you had the great misfortune of being Elena's friend at a difficult time in her life."

Caroline snorted. "I'm content to blame Katherine."

He chuckled once. "OK. Let's blame Katherine."

"Or maybe it _is_ me. I have been interested in four guys this year, and they are all dead. Granted, two of them started out that way, but I'm not sure that makes anything any better. I'm becoming a nun. I've decided."

Stefan remembered Caroline pursuing him when he first started at Mystic Falls High - her interest had seemed so incidental to his novelty, and so fleeting. But this was the second time she had brought it in the past few of days: perhaps her brief flirtation had been deeper than she had let on.

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Katherine had already indicated to Charlotte her belief that Klaus and his subalterns would be in the area of Mystic Falls, searching for her, witches, the moonstone, and werewolves. When she deposited Henri's body in a different part of the forest on the outskirts of town, she knew that Charlotte would have no trouble believing that Klaus had dumped it there. The werewolf would be able to tell that he had been killed elsewhere, but she wouldn't be able to detect Katherine's scent or the lack of Klaus' scent – werewolves simply couldn't do that. Vampires aren't human, and they don't leave scent trails the way humans do.

Alexandra kept Charlotte occupied while Katherine cleaned herself up and finished setting up the frame.

"Let's go, right now," Charlotte said to Alexandra. Her eyes were gleaming fiercely. "I want to be holding my son before dawn."

They migrated to the center of town to wait for Katherine.

Alexandra had used the Martins' cell phones to do some research, and it had directed her towards a hotel in Richmond. It was their only lead.

"We'll go soon enough," Alexandra comforted. "We all want Henri to be safe."

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John was smart, he was on the phone with Elena when he arrived at Bonnie's house, so he didn't strike fear into everyone's hearts when he knocked on the door.

Elena had never looked so glad to see him. In fact, she almost ran into his arms.

Jeremy and Jenna were inside, sitting around the television that they hadn't noticed wasn't turned on. Even they looked reassured by his presence.

"So? What's going on?"

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Stefan came right out with it, the whole truth: "I'm sorry, Damon. I know the two of you…connected. But I had to save Caroline."

Damon's eyes were a little crazy as he stared at Rose's bloody form. He turned to Stefan and shoved him so hard that he bounced off of a far-off tree and then rolled back to him. But Damon left it at that.

Caroline was cowering away from them, holding Bonnie's hand as her friend woke up.

Damon looked over at her, and she thought that maybe his expression said that he ultimately agreed with Stefan's actions, but she didn't want to overestimate his feelings for her.

"It's done," Damon finally said with a hard tone and an inscrutable expression, helping Stefan back to his feet. "Hopefully Elena is safe now."

Stefan could tell that his brother was furious. Furious that Stefan had confronted Katherine alone, furious that he had figured out where she was when Damon hadn't known, furious that he had traded Rose. But Damon was too focused and too relieved to let his fury get the better of him.

The new Damon.

Damon dug a hole and buried Tyler's body right away while the others continued to recover.

Stefan called Elena and let her know the news. He could hear Jeremy in the background, demanding more information about Bonnie.

Bonnie reluctantly allowed Damon to scoop her into his arms, and he carried her while Stefan and Caroline followed.

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Jenna was as equally furious with John as she had been with Alaric about the secrets they had been keeping from her. She thought she was too shocked by her boyfriend's death to tirade against her sort-of brother-in-law, but that turned out not to be the case.

"You left me in charge of them. Me! We both know that I am not cut out to be the guardian of two teenagers at this point in my life. But you didn't want to be tied down, or have to sacrifice your career. Fine. I took them. I did it. But how could you leave me in the dark like this? How could you not let me be the best guardian for them that I could be?"

They argued like exes, not like tenuously related inheritors. Her neuroses bounced off of his unrilable exterior, and they took turns insulting each other, and pretending like it didn't hurt.

But John wasn't arguing back. He guided Jenna upstairs so that they could talk without the others listening.

Elena was in with Mr. Bennett, making sure he was comfortable.

And Jeremy was raiding the fridge. A few hours ago he had been just as stuffed as Charlotte and Tyler after the full-moon-feast, but the good news about Bonnie reminded him that he was a growing boy.

Elena smiled at him over the refrigerator door. "Hungry already?"

He nodded, pulling out a leftover pizza - typical single-dad fare. He set the box down on the counter and flipped it open.

Elena peered in. "Hmmm, maybe I'll just have half a piece."

She pulled a large knife out of the cutlery set, and when he had time to look at his reflection in the blade, he knew that she wasn't handling it in a normal way. He tried to act casual, but he couldn't help but take a step back.

She turned to him and winked.

Jeremy wasn't sure whether she was going to set down the knife or not, but she brought it with her when she swaggered into his personal space, and she slid it slowly up his chest.

"You've grown up, Jeremy," she noted as the tip of the blade found the base of his neck.

He was shaking, and it was causing the knife to nip him. He tried to steady himself, but a part of him truly believed she was going to kill him right there…just because she wanted to. "How did you get in, Katherine?" he asked.

She laughed. "It would make more sense to count the places in Mystic Falls that I _can't_ get into. I think I got my invitation to Bonnie's about a year and a half ago. But what gave me away? I always have to ask. Was it the hair? Or was it the sharp stainless steel I waved in your face? Or maybe you detected a hint of incestuous interest? Because I've got to be honest, Jeremy, for someone so young you've got it going on." She took a step closer, and then stopped, and pondered. "Or was it the clothes?" She turned to him, expecting a sincere answer.

The trend of the conversation was not making him feel better. He shook his head and spluttered: "It was the knife."

She nodded, as if she had expected that to be his answer. "I knew it couldn't be the clothes: jeans, flip flops, and a monochrome v-neck tee isn't exactly hard to imitate. Maybe if big sis actually had some style I wouldn't get away with this so often."

She grabbed the bottom of his undershirt and lifted it up, exposing his chest. She poked him in the middle. "Not bad, Gilbert."

Now he was terrified and horrified. Sure, she wasn't his sister (or his cousin, whatever), but this was too weird.

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, the knife again became her appendage; while she covered his mouth with her other hand and forced him against the counter. "You know, Jeremy, it really pisses me off when some mousy, smug-ass teenage _human_ nothing comes along and thinks he can play in the big leagues with Katerina Petrova." She slid the knife up his chest again, this time against his bare chest, cutting into the skin. "I'm not going to kill you now, because I may need to kill you later for a better reason than revenge. But until then this will have to do."

She let his shirt fall back into place, and when he looked down at his white wife beater he saw the K that she had carved over his ribcage.

He didn't know what to do: calling for the others would only put them in danger, but he couldn't just let Katherine leave.

When Katherine lifted his shirt back up and retraced the wound with her tongue, slurping up the blood, he was on the verge of screaming for help like a little girl.

The matter was taken out of his hands, because Damon was at the door, pounding.

Katherine sped to the foyer and opened the door. Panic splashed across her face. "Damon! Katherine is somewhere in the house… And Mr. Bennett isn't awake yet, so he can't invite you in."

He wasn't taken in. "Hello again, Katherine." Behind him stood Bonnie, Caroline, and Stefan, who took an interested step forward.

She pouted. "That's no fun, Damon."

"Elena was in dark purple."

Katherine crossed her arms. "Let me guess: you remember, because it brought out her eyes."

"Something like that."

Jenna had gone from yelling, to sobbing, to sleeping. John had just finished tucking her in when he heard the commotion. He arrived on scene alongside Elena and Jeremy.

Elena screamed when she saw Katherine, and then called out Jeremy's name in concern when she saw the blood pattern on his chest.

"It's not as bad as it looks," he assured her.

Katherine held up her hand to calm them. "Relax. I'm not here to kill anybody, or kidnap anybody, or maim anybody…else," she shot a look at Jeremy. "I'm recruiting: Alexandra, Charlotte and I are going after Klaus tomorrow. We've got a lead in Richmond. Any volunteers to help us?"

They didn't have time to look at her with incredulity or drill her about her real purpose because Charlotte and Alexandra had speedily rounded the corner and paraded up the Bennetts' driveway.

Charlotte's eyes turned yellow and she growled, staring with murderous rage. Stefan looked to Katherine with concern, and Katherine, terrified was backing up into the house.

But Charlotte didn't notice: she was looking at Bonnie.

Charlotte transformed in front of all of them, and after shrugging off her clothes, the wolf took off running in the witch's direction.

Jeremy screamed "No!" and drove in front of her.

Behind them, Elena and John were both crying out to him as the wolf clamped her jaw down on his leg and began pulling him down the drive way. She bit harder and began to shake him back and forth before dropping him and moving up towards his neck.

Stefan had put himself between the creature and Caroline. Still weak, he knew he was no match for Charlotte. He was debating the best strategy to distract her when Damon leapt onto her back and yanked her away from Jeremy. The two tussled as Damon tried to guide the fight out into the street and away from everyone, both of them moving a super speed.

Stefan took off immediately to join the fight, but it was too late.

Damon had been bitten.

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Chapter 7

Can Damon be saved? (I'll just tell you that yes, he can, because I'd have Stefan invent a time machine before I would let Damon die in my story.) The gang tries to find a way to save Damon, stop Charlotte, stop Klaus, and unravel more of the mystery of Katherine.


	7. Chapter 7   The Mourning After

Author's Notes

Sorry that it has taken me so long to finish this. It has always been my intention to complete this story before the next episode aired and rendered the entire thing defunct but I didn't mean for it to come down to the last day. (Woo hoo! Happy Thursday!)

Previously

Katherine completed the curse-breaking ritual, killing Tyler, Henri, and Rose, and freeing Charlotte to turn into a werewolf as she pleases. The group gathered at Bonnie's house just in time for Charlotte to begin mysteriously attacking them, resulting in Damon receiving a bite after saving Jeremy.

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CHAPTER 7 – The Mourning After

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_Charlotte's eyes turned yellow and she growled, staring with murderous rage. Stefan looked to Katherine with concern, and Katherine, terrified was backing up into the house._

_But Charlotte didn't notice: she was looking at Bonnie. _

_Charlotte transformed in front of all of them, and after shrugging off her clothes, the wolf took off running in the witch's direction. _

_Jeremy screamed "No!" and drove in front of her._

_Behind them, Elena and John were both crying out to him as the wolf clamped her jaw down on his leg and began pulling him down the drive way. She bit harder and began to shake him back and forth before dropping him and moving up towards his neck. _

_Stefan had put himself between the creature and Caroline. Still weak, he knew he was no match for Charlotte. He was debating the best strategy to distract her when Damon leapt onto her back and yanked her away from Jeremy. The two tussled as Damon tried to guide the fight out into the street and away from everyone, both of them moving at super speed. _

_Stefan took off immediately to join the fight, but it was too late. _

_Damon had been bitten._

Charlotte lifted her snout, and red sparkled in her honed teeth. The rip in the sleeve of Damon's leather jacket was hardly visible, but everyone knew where the wound was because he had covered it desperately with his hand. He looked at his brother, scared.

Whispering "no" several times to himself, Stefan could hardly think, and his vision was blurred by tears, though he didn't even realize that he was crying.

Elena was shaking her head, helpless. "Why is she doing this?" she demanded of Katherine, croaking. Her eyes shot back and forth between Jeremy, Stefan and Damon.

Only Jeremy's leg was hurt; he was slowly scooting himself backwards towards the house; Bonnie had run to him to assist. He had several wolfsbane grenades and darts in his pocket, but all of them had been crushed when he had hit the pavement. As soon as Charlotte had shown herself to be a possible enemy, Jeremy had set out to adapt Alaric's weapons for the new substance. He had only managed a few products before they had all set out from the boardinghouse.

Stefan looked back at the house: "Shut the door," he yelled at Elena. "Shut the door and stay in there!" He turned to Caroline. "Get inside. Help Jeremy and Bonnie!"

He shifted his gaze back to the fight. Damon had collected himself, kicked Charlotte, and sent her sailing into the neighbor's yard, but Charlotte didn't appear injured and was stalking back towards him, snarling.

"No, Stefan, no!" Caroline shouted, echoed by Elena a second later.

He ignored them and began approaching the werewolf. He threw a wolfsbane dart at her, but she evaded it easily.

Caroline was too scared to intervene; she obeyed his mandates and helped Bonnie drag Jeremy the last few feet into the house. Bonnie invited her in.

Elena, who had been standing in the doorway while all of the events passed in a matter of seconds, began running towards Stefan, but Katherine grabbed her arm. "Don't be an idiot," Katherine warned.

Alexandra had slipped away unnoticed

"Stefan, run," Damon commanded calmly. Their eyes met, and Damon nodded once.

But Stefan shook his head in return; he seemed to be saying "No way."

The bite wasn't healing: like an injection, Damon felt a toxin surging throughout his body, weakening him. Although only his arm was hurt, it felt like he had taken a serious blow to his chest.

Stefan and Charlotte squared off. She seemed to acknowledge that Damon was a goner, and that Stefan was her new opponent.

"Stefan, run!" Damon repeated, this time bellowing. With his only working arm, he tried to reach for his own wolfsbane weapons, but they were shattered as well.

Stefan threw the only other dart he had and it hit Charlotte's hindquarters. Although one of her back legs became disabled, the dart had only a minimal effect and the werewolf was still headed towards him.

Stefan ripped the mailbox off of its post and threw it at her. He tore the bumper off a car parked on the street, and then began foraging through the engine for other objects to heave. She managed to avoid most of the barrage, but a couple of things hit her.

It didn't matter; she kept coming.

Elena was screaming at him, but he carried on ignoring her. Katherine continued to hold her in place, while the others filed into the house.

John took charge of Jeremy's care, and he and Bonnie hefted him over the couch. He wished there was something that he could say to Charlotte to make her stop, but he knew she wouldn't listen to him. If Henri really was dead, there was no telling what she would be capable of.

Jenna appeared at the top of the stairs.

"I'm calling 911!" she announced, before freezing, flabbergasted, as she saw Katherine and Elena side by side.

"No!" John ordered. "Not yet. Someone could get hurt. Get gauze."

Jeremy was trying to push them away. "We'll deal with it later. It's just a flesh wound."

"Shut up, _Dr._ Gilbert," Bonnie ordered. She didn't understand why Charlotte had targeted her, and she didn't know what to do. She thought she remembered seeing a spell to protect against werewolves, but Alexandra had kept the grimoire and she didn't know it by heart.

"Why don't you make her stop?" Elena asked Katherine. "Please, do something."

Katherine was outraged, almost enough to slap Elena. "You think I don't want to save Stefan and Damon?"

"Then why don't you stop her?"

"You really don't know anything about werewolves, do you?"

Caroline vamped out and ran down to Stefan's side.

"Caroline, get out of here!" he ordered, looking at her briefly.

"No!"

"Caroline!"

"You've saved me how many times? I'm not going anywhere."

"Get Damon inside," he finally said, meeting her halfway.

"But Stefan…" she said softly, and though she didn't finish the sentence he knew exactly what she was going to say: what's the point?

"Just do it!"

Caroline scooped Damon up into her arms easily and sped up to the doorway until she felt the obstruction. She looked through the door into the living room, and at Bonnie where she was ministering to Jeremy. "Bonnie!"

Bonnie's brow was furrowed. The last person she ever thought she would let into her house was Damon Salvatore.

"Bonnie!" Caroline insisted, exasperated.

Elena turned to her friend. "Please, Bonnie." Elena's tear-streaked cheeks were pale, her wide eyes were desperate.

"Come in," Bonnie said.

Caroline brought him and laid him down on the other sofa.

"Stefan, no!" Katherine screamed.

Elena tore her eyes away from Damon back out to the street, and Caroline dashed over to the door. Both girls expected to see that Stefan had been bitten, but instead they saw Charlotte in human form, facedown on the pavement, and Stefan grimly staring down at her.

Katherine raced out to him. "You killed her!" she accused.

He glared at her.

Alexandra zoomed into their huddle, holding a handgun. She looked at the body in dismay: "Fuck."

"You couldn't have run any faster?" Katherine demanded.

Alexandra was too disappointed to be defensive.

"A gun?" Stefan asked.

"It shoots wolfsbane darts," Alexandra responded. She tucked the firearm into her pants. This was the first time she had spoken to Stefan – it was almost a surreal experience after so many years of following him around. "You broke her neck! We needed her."

"She bit Damon," Stefan explained.

Alexandra's face fell. "Oh no."

The sincerity of her regret surprised Stefan.

Alexandra and Katherine exchanged a somber look.

Stefan turned to Katherine: "This is your fault."

He was unnerved when she looked at him with sympathy; she clearly didn't expect Damon to survive. She didn't feel the need to exculpate herself: Damon had been bitten defending Jeremy – that wasn't her fault.

Alexandra rolled Charlotte into her arms. "I'll take care of her." She left.

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As soon as Elena knew that Stefan was no longer in mortal danger, she scrambled over to Damon.

"Stefan-" he began, struggling to speak.

"Stefan is fine," Elena assured him with a melancholic smile. "So is Jeremy." She nodded intently at Damon. "You saved him."

He grinned weakly at her: "Poetic, huh."

She laughed through her tears and took his hand. "More like redemptive."

He shook his head. "That's too corny for me." He reached up and wiped her cheek. "I guess you weren't lying: you don't want me to die."

She covered the hand that was on her face with her own and a new accumulation of tears flooded down. "You're not going to die. We're going to find a way to save you. There has to be a way." She was shaking her head and babbling. "A-a-a spell, or something. We'll find it, Damon. _I'll_ find it."

She placed her other hand on his head and stroked his forehead before moving up into his hair.

Elena saw a possible future withering in front of her.

He smiled at her: "At least I got to kiss you before I died. You know, a kiss I didn't force on you. Granted, Katherine forced it on you, but still."

She didn't hesitate before planting a solid kiss on his lips. Short, but full of passion.

Damon knew it was a pity kiss – the smile he returned to her was half-hearted.

Elena understood what he was thinking, so she kissed him again for good measure, biting his bottom lip before pulling away. "There, no forcing," she declared. "Free will all the way."

Jeremy was trying to sit up on the couch. He wanted to say something to Damon, but he didn't know what. What do you say to the person who died saving your life? There aren't words for that.

Damon looked over at Jeremy. "What, are you stupid? Get him to the fucking hospital."

John looked at Jenna: "You take him."

"I'm coming," Bonnie stated, grabbing Jeremy's hand.

"No, Bonnie!" Elena cried. "I need you. Do something. Do something for him," she begged.

Bonnie was clearly distressed, not only on Elena's behalf, but for Damon. But she didn't know what to do. She shook her head helplessly. "There's nothing I can do."

"You helped me," Elena argued.

"That wasn't the same." Bonnie turned her tear-brimmed eyes to Damon. "I don't know how to help you."

"It's fine. Go. Take your father and Caroline with you."

"You should stay, Bonnie," Jeremy said. "You might be able to help."

"Go, all of you. I don't want to spend my last moments surrounded by people who are only being nice to me because I'm dying."

"So you're still a dick," Jeremy responded genially.

"It's not true, Damon," Caroline said. She advanced towards him. "I'm not going to be nice to you even though you _are _dying." She bent down. "But even _I_ don't want you dead. You know – not anymore."

"Thanks, blondie. Since I'm dying, I guess I'll say this for once: I'm sorry. For…well, you know what for."

She nodded. "I accept."

Stefan rushed into the house as soon as Alexandra had departed with Charlotte, but was repulsed by the door boundary.

"Come in, Stefan" Bonnie called immediately.

Caroline retrieved Mr. Bennett, and she, Bonnie, Jenna and Jeremy drove to the hospital, passing anxiously by a hesitant Katherine as they went out the door. She ignored them, her eyes trained on Stefan and Damon.

Elena tried to hug Stefan, but he swept gently past her and bent down at Damon's side.

"Brother," Damon greeted. Seeing the agony on Stefan's face, he said: "This is right. What I've done: I'm paying. Now you get the life without me that you've always deserved."

Stefan shook his head, tears streaming steadily out of his eyes. "I don't want it. A life without you – I don't want it. I never did."

"You'll change your mind. Give it time. You and Elena are going to figure things out, and you're gonna be happy. You have to do that – for me. Deathbed wish and all that. I think that's how it works – I mean I died once before, but it was sudden," he said, attempting levity, and failing.

Damon's eyes alighted on Katherine. "What are you doing here?" he demanded, too debilitated to sound more than only slightly belligerent.

"Watching you die," she replied feelingly. Sorrowfully. Behind her stoic expression was a quiet misery, a more-than-passing regret.

He felt something ripple through him when he saw her dispirited face. "I thought you'd be the one to do this," he said to her. "One way or another." He paused. "You know - again."

"You're so sure this isn't my fault?" She inclined her and pursed her lips. "Damon, if I knew how to save you, I would."

"How long does he have?" Stefan interrogated, without turning to look at her.

"The bite is close to his heart. A few hours."

"Call Alexandra," Stefan demanded of Katherine. His desperation gave him the audacity. "Have her take Emily's spellbook to Bonnie at the hospital. There's a chance she might find something."

Katherine stepped outside and made the call.

Stefan was clenching Damon's hand so hard that it was the only thing he felt through the pain of the poison.

"Don't look so gloomy," Damon commanded

"Why not?" Stefan despaired.

Damon gestured for him to lean in closer. He whispered: "This is probably the best moment of my life – everyone looking so fucking sad. Who knew they all liked me so much?"

Stefan laughed, but it only caused him to cry more.

"It was worth it," Damon murmured. "Caring got me killed. But it was worth it." He made sure that Elena heard him. She did.

Elena had backed away to give the brothers a little privacy. She moved close to John, but he made no move to comfort her.

It was instinct for a girl to turn to her father when she had no hope. Her father wasn't here, but John was. She felt herself seeking something out in him. "There's got to be something that we can do. I refuse to just stand here while the bite kills him." She spoke to everyone in the room.

John was looking at Damon very intently. Conflictedly.

He put his hand on Elena's arm and ushered her attention to him. She was confused, she wasn't sure what he wanted from her, but then she saw that he knew something. He didn't want to yield the information unless it would gain her favor. He wanted to redeem himself in her eyes.

Elena gave him the encouragement he sought.

"They say…" he began.

"What?" Elena and Stefan demanded urgently in unison. "What do they say?"

"They say that wolfsbane acts as an antidote to a werewolf bite if applied properly and in time. It is supposed to counteract the vevnom."

Katherine was already back: "There's no way that's true – I would have heard about it."

"Where did you hear this?" Elena inquired. "Who 'says'?"

"Who cares," Stefan declared. "It's worth a try. Katherine, do you have any more extract of wolfsbane?"

To say her stock was depleted was a gross understatement, but she wasn't completely out of it. She nodded.

"Go," he said.

She nodded again and departed in a flash.

Elena was still waiting for an answer.

"Jonathan Gilbert knew that the Lockwoods were werewolves. He journaled what he found out about them, but he kept those journals in the Gilbert family – they never became the privilege of the council. The founding families have always dedicated themselves to protecting Mystic Falls, but I've made the supernatural my life's work, so I took the journals and kept them to myself."

"And this information was in the journals?" Stefan posed.

"No. But the journals did lead me to another werewolf family aside from Charlotte's and the Lockwoods. I never told her, because I never trusted her; she was too close to Katherine. This other family could see how I despised vampires – they didn't mind telling me some of their secrets. And you can understand why they've kept this secret. They'd probably kill me if they knew I'd told you."

Elena took his hand. "We'll keep you safe."

Stefan was encouraged. "Another family of werewolves." He looked at Damon. They were both thinking the same thing: Klaus.

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Alexandra knocked on the door of the boardinghouse the following morning. She could enter at will, of course, but she chose to be courteous.

Stefan opened it. "The mysterious Alexandra. Where's Katherine?"

"Can I come in?"

He shrugged and backed away so that she could go inside.

Damon was reclined on the sofa. He furrowed his brow when he saw her: "Lex?"

"I wasn't sure that you'd remember me…"

Stefan shut the door and came inside. "You two know each other?"

"Oh sure," Damon responded. "Didn't you know? I've got a Lexi too."

"You seemed familiar…" Stefan mused, wondering when he would have met her.

"There's a number of reasons why that would be true," Alexandra informed him.

"Sexy Lexi…I've been keeping my eye out for you. I always figured we'd run into each other again some day," Damon said before Stefan could follow up.

"Really? I was under the impression that you only had eyes for Katherine."

"Oh, I'm into Elena now. It's customary to remark upon that. Everyone does."

"I said you only had '_eyes_' for Katherine, so the way I see it, the statement still stands, seeing as how they're identical."

Damon frowned.

"What are you doing here?" Stefan asked.

Alexandra turned to him. "I came to check on Damon's progress: I see that he's doing well. That's wonderful."

Elena and Caroline, hearing the chatter, drifted into the room, but hung back in the corner.

She continued: "Hopefully Klaus doesn't know about the wolfsbane cure."

"Why did Charlotte attack Bonnie?" Elena asked.

Alexandra's face betrayed embarrassment. "That's my bad. Bonnie had some of Henri's blood on her. Charlotte could smell it as soon as she came out of the woods. She tracked Bonnie to her house and attacked. Werewolves aren't terribly cogent once the aggression takes over. That's why she went after every person who stepped in, even though they were only trying to defend. And werewolves don't back down."

Damon was more interested in other things: "How do you know Katherine, Lex?"

Alexandra scratched behind her ear, a stalling tactic. She chewed on her lip, clearly not wanting to tell him. But she felt like coming clean after what he had been through because of them: "Katherine is my mother."

Everyone's jaw dropped.

"No fucking way," Damon said, echoing everyone's thoughts.

Alexandra looked over at Elena. "We're not so different. My mother had to give me up when I was born. I was adopted by a nice family, never knowing about my true origins. Katherine tracked me down when I was a teenager. She insinuated herself into my life. She was glamorous, living with rich men until she tired of them and moved on. We were best friends. You can imagine my shock when she told me the truth. She convinced me to turn – and why wouldn't I? To be young and beautiful forever? The daylight was a small sacrifice, and didn't last for long. But first I had a child. Even that far back Katherine knew what she was doing: waiting for a doppelganger."

"I'm beginning to get a little discouraged," Damon stated. "All of the people I kill survive, and all of the women I pursue are descended from Katherine. It's starting to get to me." He turned to Caroline: "What about you? Are you a Petrova?"

She was a little startled by him again referencing their so-called relationship, but she gathered her wits quickly. "Not that I know of." Of course, it was entirely possible.

"Where were you when Katherine was with us?" Stefan asked.

"Around. She kept me a secret, to protect me. She wanted to be seen as a woman with nothing to lose."

"And in '94, in Florida? What was that?" Damon questioned.

Alexandra blushed. "My mother always knew where you were…because she had me following you around, keeping tabs. Both of you. That's why I was there."

"But why?" Damon and Stefan asked simultaneously.

Alexandra laughed. "That's something you're going to have to ask her. She had to avoid you, of course. No one could know that she was alive. But I don't think her reasons were quite so practical on the whole."

"Were you the one that released her from the tomb?" Elena queried.

"Guilty. She's my mother."

"The two of you killed Elijah and warlocks?" Damon followed up.

Alexandra explained everything that she had done since she came to Mystic Falls.

Caroline was seething in the corner, but there was little she could do except for seethe.

"Well, I had better be going. _Mama_ and I are leaving town. We've got Originals to run from, and werewolves to find."

Damon stopped her from leaving with another question: "Why does she bother with us? Why doesn't she leave us alone? It wasn't just her needing Elena."

Alexandra shrugged and gave him a slightly sympathetic hell-if-I-know smile: "Five centuries and I've never seen anyone get under her skin like you Salvatores. My mother never could resist the two of you. Why do you think she's had me following you around for 150 years?"

Alexandra had seemingly left, but she re-opened the door for a moment to say: "I'm sure you'll be seeing us."

0000000000

Although Damon was rapidly healing, no one, not even him, was in a good mood.

Too many people had died.

Damon felt uncomfortable. Everyone had seen him be vulnerable and self-sacrificial and he felt like they were all counting on him to be nicer now. And what was worse was that he owed is life to John Gilbert.

Caroline and Jenna bonded quickly, both devastated by the loss of their boyfriends. They cried and ate and cried and ate and talked about revenge scenarios and stratagems. Jenna supposed that Charlotte had suffered as much as possible before dying, believing that her son was dead. But she realized that Katherine was the one who really needed to pay.

Bonnie stayed at the hospital with Jeremy overnight. Alexandra had kept the grimoire. She knew that she was going to have to seek out other witches if she was going to get any better at the craft. Lucy must have had family, and she knew those distant Bennetts were out there somewhere.

Damon found Rose's body in the woods. He stood there in a moment of silence, a semi-funeral and an apology for what he was about to do.

The town was littered with bodies: Matt, Tyler, Charlotte, Henri, Luka Martin, Jonas Martin, Lucy, Alaric and others. Someone had to be blamed.

So he blamed Rose. He called Liz, and handed over his killing-spree vampire scapegoat.

That was the day that marked a mass exodus from Mystic Falls, because no one wants to live in a town with that kind of mortality rate.

Stefan knew that he would not have killed Charlotte if he had not been hopped up on human blood. He could have neutralized her without snapping her neck, but he hadn't. And he was relieved that Mr. Bennett, Jenna, Bonnie, and especially the bleeding Jeremy had all left the house before he had entered it, because he had not been ready to come down from his high.

Elena and Damon helped him wean himself down slowly so that he was back to only a small amount of human blood each day.

The gang didn't know if Klaus was still coming. With Elijah and the Martins dead, his right hand had effectively been cut off, but he was the type to regrow limbs. They feared that the day might be coming when they would have to depend upon Katherine. John was the only one who knew about the other family of werewolves, and Stefan wondered what he might one day have to do.

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Author's Notes

Although the story still has plenty of places to go, I consider this part of the story concluded, so this will be the final chapter. I wish I could have gone a little further with Stefan and Caroline, but it simply wasn't appropriate under the circumstances and given the short span of time. You can count on the fact that if this story _did_ continue, Stefan and Caroline would end up in a loving, committed relationship. As would Damon and Elena, for that matter.

Also, sorry about the lame ending. I wanted to get it done so badly that it came out rather clumsy.

Thanks for reading! And please please _please_ review…


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